A tool for Buffing Small Areas
 

I have been working on polishing my front fenders.

I had to color sand the inside due to some orange peel and well - dirt. I did not want hand compound so I bought this:

3" polisher

It is a Harbor Freight cheapy, but I am not doing production. Plus that area would be a lot of hand polishing.

I was working on the top side and the little polisher really did its job. I was able to fix a buffing screw up made by my big polisher and get my bead area polished.

There are some nice $300 electric tools I would love to have. Lets face it $300 is just not in the budget. So for $37 minus the 20% coupon I got the Harbor Freight item. The foam pads are kind of crappy, but I just need to buy some real ones.

Re: A tool for Buffing Small Areas
 

Hello,

How are you doing the color sanding and polishing? What materials are you using?
I just finished painting my '72 Triumph (http://dougbraun.com/blog/sptifire/), and I have to deal with a few patches of orange peel and some insects. If all goes well with that car, I'll feel comfortable doing some compounding and polishing on my A, which I painted last year.

I am overwhelmed with the number of compounds, polishes, glazes, and other miracle substances on the market...

Doug

Re: A tool for Buffing Small Areas
 

Hi Kevin: A big help is a small 1/4" chuck air powered Angle grinder if you have compressor with 15 CFM. You can get the Polishing pads from a Auto Body Jobber. I use a lambs wool pad first and then a finer finishing pad. I've tried all of the compounds out there and I have the best luck with the Presta line. The price is right, a little goes a long way, if works the fastest and no residue that sticks to you paint work. It cleans up easily. I usually sand with, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000 and 2500 and then polish. I use the Ultra light polish first and then the 1500 polish. Remember anything with the word compound is very course cutting. You can actually use it to remove orange peel.

Hope this help.

The Old Tinbasher

Re: A tool for Buffing Small Areas
 

I learned quite a bit a autobodystore.com.

I am using 3M compounds and stuff, but that was bought before learning of Presta. You can get the Presta stuff and the pads from the above link. When I need to buy more stuff I may try the Presta stuff.


I am using concept paint which gets very tough quick. Other paints may need to be handled differently.
I block with 1000/ 1500 depending on how bad the surface is. I also have NIB files. I have some 3M disks that are 1500 and let me sand dry too. That is nice cause you can tell when you are just level on the paint so you do not over sand. Depending on just how bad I made the orange peel I may wet sand some to get the basic cut. You need to block sand to level.

Then I sand wet 2000 because I have that paper. I move on to 3000 trizact with a low throw DA I stumbled on cheap at a flea market. The low throw DA's can be pricey if you have to buy one new, but they save a lot of time. The trizact needs to be kept damp. I have a hand sprayer I stool from my wife used to wet down hair to cut it- she does not know I have it in the garage so please do not tell her (really). If you get the trizact too wet it slides over without cutting. Then I go to Abralon 4000, but this is not as necessary cause you can compound the 3000.

The key to buffing out, which I am slowly learning, is to cut beyond the previous paper scratch. The problem for me is I am paranoid and I tend to stop sanding too soon cause I do not want to cut through the color paint and have to repaint. There is a delicate balance you need to learn.

There are different places on the web you can go to learn about the processes. It is not rocket science, but you do need to get the right stuff and have a clue about what you are doing.