Hey all after some inspiration from cars on here, i decided to give my mini its final buff after its paintjob a couple of months back. I went to JAM's site and did what he said but its still not super shiny. I borrowed a proper multi speed buffer from work (looks like a big anglegrinder) with a new lambs wool cover but before hand i sanded back 1 panel with 1000 then 1200 paper. I then gave it a buff with some of Meguairs gold class. Its now nice and smooth with no orange peal but is still kind of dull. what am i doing wrong?? I had the buffer on its slowest speed, should i crank it up?? Do i do quick passes or slow?? Help, i want it to be super shiny!!! Luckily ive only done one panel so far

trent

_________________

you may have sanded it to course, try some 1500 or 2000 grit paper, then get yourself some cutting compound, ask paint shop for best one for your type of paint (2pak,acrylic)

Buff it on slow, with sweeping motion use heaps of cutting compound. Alittle bit of water mist sprayed on from a spray bottle will also help ( you will get covered in crap).

If it still dosnt shine, it may have something to do with the painting, eg not enough thinners in mix is a common problem.

After you get the shine then hit it with the Meguairs gold class.

_________________
1974 Moke - 998cc
76 Clubman B16a2 Vtec AWD Turbo 12.9@105mph
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9PW49e1hYs

I'm no expert but I have heard that you need high speed (450RPM) to "melt" the surface of the paint and give it its "shine".....

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

I may not be a painter but I have won many trophies for best paint etc at shows, so I will let you in on the secret for show quality paint. NEver, Never use a lambs wool buffing pad for final finish. First up you need more than one polish to do the job. I prefer to do it by hand (yes it takes me 2 weeks to buff the car, but hell you get out what you put in). I sand with 2000 wet and mix up a bucket of kitchen detergent with water. It helps stop dust from scratching the surface and stops paper clog. Now you can use the lambs wool buff on LOW speed with Maguires Heavy cut polish. Repeat this 3 times and finish the corners by hand. You can use the same lambswool pad and buff with Maguires Medium cut 3 times and again finish corners etc by hand. Now comes the fun part. I polish the car by hand say 5 or 6 times using a pure terry cloth (maguires make them) and Maguires fine cut. Now repeat this with new cloths but using Maguires Swirl Remover. Make sure you dont drop the rag or you have to throw it out. Finish with Maguires Medallion or show finish and apply this by hand using a spongue. You can speed things up a bit by doing the first few coats of swirl remover using a foam pad not a lambs wool one. Follow this and I guarantee an awesome finish. I have had many professional painters ask me how I got my paint to look like glass and this is how I do it. Hope this helps G.

_________________
1970 Cooper S ex-Bathurst & ATCC
1964 Austin Cooper S ex-Group C race car
1967 Morris Cooper S ex-Group B
1962 Mini Speed sports sedan
1968-71 ex-Peter Manton Shell car

hey low'n'blown, how many coats of clear do you do?....polishing it that many times i'd be afraid of cutting through to the colour coats (acrylic im talking here).....whats your painting process?

_________________
play 3d car games for free

most acrylic paint do not have the clear coat on top....

the acrylic will, in time dull out and hence you need to buff it - it doesnt help when you have 2-3 or maybe even 5-6 coats of clear on top.

i reckon the secret is in the preparation together with the time consuming sanding afterwards with 2000++grit sandpaper....also in the type of cut,polish and wax you use. The polish is the most important though....u get what you pay for.....there's a few out there that are like $8-12 a bottle but you really need at the absolute minimum maguires! (if you want a half decent to excellent finish)

1000 and 1200 grade paper will scratch the surface a bit I think. Only use them if you have heaps of paint, and are going to use 1500 and 2000 afterwards.

If you have left your paint for months, it will be pretty hard by now. I was told to buff 1 or 2 weeks after painting, because the paint will be more receptive to a cut and buff.

The jury is out on wool pads vs foam. I have seen pro's use foam pads very well, but for home you can't beat the convenience of a wool pad.

As Brad said, use a good cutting compound (not polish). I just did my roof last weekend with 1500, 2000 paper, then cutting compound and wool pad on the buffer, and that was good enough for a great shine.

Also, I hear the heat generated from a buffer (wool or foam) is what gives the shine.

Good luck Trent!

ok fill me in here guys......i read this really old school book on body repairs (got it for 50c at the lokal lions library)...anyway, it said that when fixing acrylic paint the deal was sand the panel back, apply filler to get the panel straight (after panel beating of course), then primer, then colour coats, then clear coats....

now i'm guessing this is completely wrong......how is it really done (assuming a bare metal panel)

_________________
play 3d car games for free

nothing wrong with that statement, although most painters will only put clear coat over a metallic base. IMHO there is no need to clear coat an acrylic non metallic base colour

ok then......maybe it was just when paint quality was crappy ("back in the day") that they would clear coat it??

_________________
play 3d car games for free

sorry to hijack the thread, but í'll be quick...

JAM, are metallics any harder to spray than flat colours? and do you need any special gear? (the old book doesn't say anything about metallics)

cheers

_________________
play 3d car games for free

Guys, JAM is right you dont need to clear coat acrylic. I have seen more paint jobs stuff up because they have been cleared. There is often a mismatch between the components of the paint and in time the clear coat can lift. You do have to clear coat the metallics though. When you do it on your last coat of colour mix in some clear and thin it. This will stop there from being a total division in paints. Metallics are harder to paint. The metal flakes must all be laying the same way or in sunlight it looks patchy. In other words you dust it on and your angle of the gun must be constant. WIth a clear coat if you rub through, the colour will look different in that section and on a metallic is a disaster, so put heaps on. I generally use (wait for it) 12 litres of paint to do a mini inside and out. That doesnt include primer. I lay 9 coats of paint on with a 50/50 overlap, and dont sand in between coats. I do it in 3 lots of 3 and allow only an hour for the solvents to leech between each set of 3. You dont really rub off that much paint with the polish. My paint jobs still look rediculously thick on the edges and that is part of the overall finish. At the end of the day you only get out what you put in. I think SG can second that.

_________________
1970 Cooper S ex-Bathurst & ATCC
1964 Austin Cooper S ex-Group C race car
1967 Morris Cooper S ex-Group B
1962 Mini Speed sports sedan
1968-71 ex-Peter Manton Shell car

Guys, if I offend any spray painters by giving wrong info I apologise, at the end of the day I am just a chiropractor. I was taught by a guy that builds hot rod show cars and this is the only way I know how to do the job. They do come out pretty good though.

_________________
1970 Cooper S ex-Bathurst & ATCC
1964 Austin Cooper S ex-Group C race car
1967 Morris Cooper S ex-Group B
1962 Mini Speed sports sedan
1968-71 ex-Peter Manton Shell car

Great info low'n blown, but a painter will probably find flaws in it....

I worked at Qantas Engineering for 10 years. I was situated right next door to the Paint Shop in engineering, and spent many late evenings in there helping the guys paint engines and components (but my trade is metal work).

In regard to metallics, they told me that the metal particles have to sit upright. If you lay the paint on too thick, the particles will lay flat, and the sunlight won't hit them correclty, then it wont really look like a metallic paint. How many cars have you seen that have bold metallic? They have been painted well. How many do you see, where you have to squint to really see the metallic, they have been painted incorrectly.

I painted JAM piece by piece. If I wanted to paint JAM in metallic, I would have had to paint it as a whole car. If you do each panel seperatly, you are likely to lay the metallic particles down differently, and as low'n blown said, it will look patchy.

Well i took all of your advices and found the middle of the road between them. I bought some cutting compound and first off did a panel by hand, came up a treat, but after the second panel i was getting lazy and cranked up the machine buffer and used it with the cutting compound, luckily same results as the hand done panels *whew*.
I sprayed my car with acrylic paints. The base coat was a black but then i sprayed a blue/purple metallic pearl mixed in a clear coat, then 5 more clear coats over the top (bit of overkill but i wanted to use up the paint haha) Spraying mettalics is quite hard and mine isnt a perfect job as it is "patchy" in parts but it was the first time i have sprayed a car and im more than happy with the results.

Best i go and do some more rubbing and buffing, ill post some pics when done

trent

_________________