Cut and Buff Plans

ssanto said:
I went and looked at the car again and at my test panel. The spray pattern on the test panel is about 10 inches tall. On the car, the top of the door to the rocker is about 28 inches. I replayed my painting and I had 5 passes on that part of the car.... and when I draw that out on paper, it gives me about 50% overlap. The centerline of each pass is about 5-6 inches apart.

I also replayed my painting and I think my speed may have been a little faster than 1 foot per second. I would do a 10 foot pass in about 8.5 seconds.

So maybe I'm not as far off on the coverage as I thought...[/QUOT
ssanto said:
I've been practicing on a test panel I shot with base and clear a few weeks ago...

On the flat area, I spent a minute or so rubbing an 8" x 8" area with 1000 and a soft pad and didn't break through the clear. And then I switched to a hard block and did another minute with 1000. It finally broke through and immediately went all the way through the base and into the primer. I had expected that I would see when I broke through the clear and stop before I get through the base, but it didn't seem to work that way.

On a hard edge, it was much easier to break through the clear and base... but I still had to really try to intentionally do it with the soft block.
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I'm not familiar with that gun, or the settings you used, but if you sprayed 4 coats unreduced like you said above there should be plenty of clear to sand and buff the orange peel out, IMO. Now if your going for totally flat, that's different. Just stay away or tape the sharp edges. Bad technique can burn edges no matter how many coats you have. Pictures up close would help. On your 8x8 panel, how many coats of clear did you spray? If you sprayed 4 coats on it and you're going through that easy with 1000, definitely reclear.
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I don't have a good frame of reference on how long cut and buff should take. It seemed like 3 minutes of sanding an 8 inch x 8 inch area (just moving the sanding pad back and forth in a small area) was a long time of sanding before it broke through.
 
I want to mention that even for a professional, it's tough to get exactly the same mil thickness on a test panel as you get on the vehicle.

Good luck with your polishing! Be gentle around edges, and use tape on them also.
 
Hard to believe the car has been sitting for almost two months!

This morning I decided to take the day off of work and try the cut and buff. So far it is working great! I love Universal Clear!

Here's what is working:
  • Hand sand with 1500 wet and a foam pad
    • This gets all the trash out and 90% of the orange peel
  • Hand sand with 2000 wet and a foam pad
    • Gets it to about 95% orange peel free
  • Buff with Meguairs 100 and wool pad
  • Buff with Meguairs 100 and orange Chemical Guys hex pad
  • Buff with Meguiars 205 and white Chemical Guys hex pad

I spend about 15 minutes doing a section. And there are about 30 sections. So that'll add up to around 8 hours which is fine by me. It's not coming out perfect (to the standards of a professional), but that was never the plan. But to a regular person looking at the car, it'll be great!

I probably have more steps than necessary. But I find it easier to go slow and monitor my progress so that I don't cut through. I did some testing of this process on a spare part I painted in the same manner as the rest of the car and it took A LOT of sanding to cut through. So I think I'll be OK.


Thanks for all your help everybody!
 
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