[plan4]

Hi,

I just finished clearcoating my racebike bodywork. It was my first real painting experience, and it definitely had its share of ups and downs. I used Nason 496-00 clear and finished last night, so it's been 24 hours already. I worked like the devil to get it smooth and did a fair job, so I'm a bit scared to sand it all again.


I have mostly small curved surfaces and a lot of decals to avoid. I have time, but very little money left as I spent a lot more on paint than I had planned to.

I've searched through the forums and read a bunch of articles on sanding/buffing, but I still have some questions.

For small areas/small budgets/single projects, what is a good buffer to get? would I be better off using a small sander? (this is a racebike and WILL be crashed at least once by next fall, so I want it to look great, but not perfect)

What is glazing? Is that done by hand after the buffing?

My plan is to wetsand with 1500, then 2000, then buff. Any problem with that?

I read a lot here about waiting too long to sand/buff. Because I have so little surface area, is it really a problem if the paint hardens a bit longer?

Thanks guys. Wish it had occurred to me to turn to hotrod guys for advice earlier!

 

[plan4]

I'm leaning toward foam over wool as this is my first time around and I will be sanding. Which foam pads should I go with? There are so many different styles!

 

[Kevin45]

The foam pad will differ from vendor to vendor. But you will have a pad to buff, and a different pad to use with the polish / glazing / swirl remover or whichever you want to call it. Meguiars has Perfect-it buffing compound and Perfect-it glazing. Sand with 1000, polish it with a white foam pad, then after you get the look you want, go over it with a grey pad and glazing. The glazing removes the swirls that were left from buffing. Use low speed and keep moving avoiding any sharp areas or other places that might grab the pad. I pick up a variable speed buffer from Lowes for around $60 and it did a great job. Speed varies from 1-6. Not sure on what that converts to in RPM right at the moment though. If you are leary about polishing your tank right off, get your compounds, pull the car up to the garage, and give it a go on the hood until you get the feel of the equipment.

Kevin

 

[plan4]

I just realized that I may have a hard time keeping the pieces in one place while trying to use a buffer that requires two hands. Is there a small, one-handed option. With my pieces being so small, I could use what for you guys might be an unacceptably small tool for a car.

I just looked at homedepot.com and found a ryobi rb60k 6" orbital buffer.



Waste of money? Even for one small job? I notice it only has 1 speed, 4000rpm. Am I going to burn through with that?

Also, I have many very small recessed areas. I had planned to just leave them as is. Will the buffed/polished areas have a noticeably different gloss level?