Ok so I’ve working at this body shop for a few months now. When I started I knew nothing about buffing or polishing or most of the paint defects. The Owner’s Son showed me a few basics to buffing with an electric Dewalt rotary buffer leaving it mostly up to me to learn for myself.
Most of the work I do is sanding or “dirt nibbing� the dirt, fish eyes, and other small defects in new paint (usually painted same day) and polishing them out to look like the rest of the paint.
Travis, the Owner’s Son, basically told me to wet sand by hand with 1500-2000 grit sand paper all the small defects in a circular motion. Then take 3M Perfect-It 3000 Rubbing Compound not the extra cut and compound the scratch marks out. Then only on the darker colors like black, dark blue, green, red etc. use 3M Perfect-It 3000 Swirl Mark Remover.
Travis always trys to get me to finish each job faster and faster, he buffs at 3000rpms, doesn’t care about splatter or anything until the paint is clean and it looks like there are no more scratch marks and the paint looks polished. Then he goes over the paint triggering the buffer over the area he polished and pressing very hard against the surface while moving very quickly. He seems to get decent results with no swirls or holograms after washing the car. I try to do the same as him but always have swirls and holograms or miss a lot of scratches that appear after washing the car.
All he gave me to work with is the 3M Compound + 3M White foam waffle pad, 3M Swirl remover + 3M Grey foam waffle pad and micro fiber towels. I try to follow the simple tips I read on here using lower rpms, holding the pad flat on the surface, getting the paint warm not hot, not pressing hard but letting the buffer do the work, keeping the pad clean. But the swirls and sanding scratches always seem to come out after I wash the car (with a pressure washer). I can’t get rid of them.
It wouldn’t be as big of a problem if I had more time to work on the cars, speed is very important to him and we have a lot of volume of cars going through the shop.
So how should I go about doing getting rid of the markings that I leave behind when buffing, yet still keep up a fast pace?
Thanks,
Andrew
Sorry of the Novel.:waxing:
Most of the work I do is sanding or “dirt nibbing� the dirt, fish eyes, and other small defects in new paint (usually painted same day) and polishing them out to look like the rest of the paint.
Travis, the Owner’s Son, basically told me to wet sand by hand with 1500-2000 grit sand paper all the small defects in a circular motion. Then take 3M Perfect-It 3000 Rubbing Compound not the extra cut and compound the scratch marks out. Then only on the darker colors like black, dark blue, green, red etc. use 3M Perfect-It 3000 Swirl Mark Remover.
Travis always trys to get me to finish each job faster and faster, he buffs at 3000rpms, doesn’t care about splatter or anything until the paint is clean and it looks like there are no more scratch marks and the paint looks polished. Then he goes over the paint triggering the buffer over the area he polished and pressing very hard against the surface while moving very quickly. He seems to get decent results with no swirls or holograms after washing the car. I try to do the same as him but always have swirls and holograms or miss a lot of scratches that appear after washing the car.
All he gave me to work with is the 3M Compound + 3M White foam waffle pad, 3M Swirl remover + 3M Grey foam waffle pad and micro fiber towels. I try to follow the simple tips I read on here using lower rpms, holding the pad flat on the surface, getting the paint warm not hot, not pressing hard but letting the buffer do the work, keeping the pad clean. But the swirls and sanding scratches always seem to come out after I wash the car (with a pressure washer). I can’t get rid of them.
It wouldn’t be as big of a problem if I had more time to work on the cars, speed is very important to him and we have a lot of volume of cars going through the shop.
So how should I go about doing getting rid of the markings that I leave behind when buffing, yet still keep up a fast pace?
Thanks,
Andrew
Sorry of the Novel.:waxing: