Another "newb" needs some help

R

Ryan23

New member
Hello all -

I'm looking for some advice on what to get to replace my aging Craftsman polisher. Reading on here, it looks like I should be looking towards a UDM or PC 7424. Great. However, I have some confusion on the various pad sizes and pad types.



My experience lies with 3M products and foam pads. They have always returned great results after wet sanding. I was anxious to try 3M's Perfect-it 3000 system. 3M has a few "kits" that contain everything you need. However the pad size they offer is an 8". Reading around the forums, it seems like most people are using ~5" pad. Would an 8" not be suitable? Or am I better off going with a completely different product or system?



I'll be using the polisher on two cars. The first car is a repainted 95' Nissan Skyline 400R, red. The paint looks ok, I'm just seeing some orange peel and a few paint defects that I'd like to wet sand out. I'm pretty sure it's NOT clearcoated. The second car is my wife's 93' Nissan Pulsar GTI-R. It was also a recent repaint and has a combination of old and new paint. I'm pretty sure the roof is it's original black. It feels very rough but I'm pretty sure it's salvageable. The rest of the car has new paint but it's in dire need of some attention. Lots of orange peel and a few paint defects. I don't believe it has a clearcoat either.



So what do you guys suggest? Most of my garage stuff hasn't arrived from the states yet, so I'm going to be ordering everything new. Keep in mind this won't be a business, just my own two cars. What's a good assortment to get me going and who do you suggest I go through?





Thanks,

Ryan
 
You're really gonna want to put a rotary in your hands if you're wetsanding...unless you got three full days to devote to each car - it generally takes most experts a full day (when done properly) to wetsand and buff a dark colored vehicle using a rotary...with a DA polisher, you can double or triple that time.
 
RAG said:
You're really gonna want to put a rotary in your hands if you're wetsanding...unless you got three full days to devote to each car - it generally takes most experts a full day (when done properly) to wetsand and buff a dark colored vehicle using a rotary...with a DA polisher, you can double or triple that time.
Click to expand...

100% agreed, and that's IF you will be able to completely remove the sanding scuffs you've created. I did a few test panels with a spot pad and pc, although initially i thought it removed 25k scratches completely there was still deeper damage remaining after a few passes. I have to imagine it would take a crazy amount of passes via da to completely remove them. As Rag says, even with a rotary it's a full days work. If not two.
 
What do you guys recommend as far as a rotary? I'm not looking to spend too much money but I understand I'm not going to get away with something for under $50 :). Should I stick with 3M's Perfect-It 3000 system? How about those 8" Pads, would they be fine with a rotary?



Thanks for the advice,



Ryan



Edit: By the way, I won't need to go any harsher than 1500 grit with the wet sanding based on a test spot I did.
 
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