Ryan
07-01-2004, 08:12 PM
This week I had some time and found a fender at the local VW Body Shop. It is a good panel to learn how to maneuver around the corners. My reason for doing this was not how to better handle the buffer but, how to sand/detail the orange peeal out of the finish. The panel was in decent conditions and had a few major "wounds".
The easy part was sanding and took about 20 minutes. It looked like this:
http://mysite.verizon.net/ryanboyce/4Fender2.jpg
The purpose of this excercise was to understand what it takes to level the paint to an orange peel free finish. Man, was I ever in for a surprise in what it actually takes to attain a perfect, glass-like finish.
To just begin to bring the shine back I started with a synthetic wool bonnet and some Hi-Temp 1000 leveler. I felt comfortable after about 2 applications. I was wrong about that. As a matter of fact, it took another 3 applications with the wool bonnet and leveler plus, another application of another synthetic compound and a foam cutting pad to remove the wool cutting pads extreme marring. Once the compounding was complete I moved on to IP polish and green pads, followed by a thick coat of glaze and Collinite wax.
http://mysite.verizon.net/ryanboyce/4Fender1.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/ryanboyce/4Fender3.jpg
The results are obvious. My problem is that the amount of polishing it took to muscle the swirls out of the finish is excessive. I started out with almost 7 mm of film build and ended up with between 4-5 mm. I burned right through 2-3 mm of clear coat! :scared
I mean, is it possible to remove orange peel with a machine rather than sanding? I have the idea that it may ultimately be safer and possibly more efficient if the process is done entirely with a foam cutting pad and a good compound. This way deep tracers (sanding marks) are not unecessarily introduced into the finish that need to be muscled out.
Please share any tricks. I`d like to use them for a dark green Passat hood waiting at VW.
The easy part was sanding and took about 20 minutes. It looked like this:
http://mysite.verizon.net/ryanboyce/4Fender2.jpg
The purpose of this excercise was to understand what it takes to level the paint to an orange peel free finish. Man, was I ever in for a surprise in what it actually takes to attain a perfect, glass-like finish.
To just begin to bring the shine back I started with a synthetic wool bonnet and some Hi-Temp 1000 leveler. I felt comfortable after about 2 applications. I was wrong about that. As a matter of fact, it took another 3 applications with the wool bonnet and leveler plus, another application of another synthetic compound and a foam cutting pad to remove the wool cutting pads extreme marring. Once the compounding was complete I moved on to IP polish and green pads, followed by a thick coat of glaze and Collinite wax.
http://mysite.verizon.net/ryanboyce/4Fender1.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/ryanboyce/4Fender3.jpg
The results are obvious. My problem is that the amount of polishing it took to muscle the swirls out of the finish is excessive. I started out with almost 7 mm of film build and ended up with between 4-5 mm. I burned right through 2-3 mm of clear coat! :scared
I mean, is it possible to remove orange peel with a machine rather than sanding? I have the idea that it may ultimately be safer and possibly more efficient if the process is done entirely with a foam cutting pad and a good compound. This way deep tracers (sanding marks) are not unecessarily introduced into the finish that need to be muscled out.
Please share any tricks. I`d like to use them for a dark green Passat hood waiting at VW.