Polishing new Rustoleum hand paint job!

[bpbpbp]

Hi!

I'm a broke student and have hand painted a Triumph Spitfire with Rustoleum and it looks neat - I'm very happy! It's never going to be a show car, and the idea is to get as good a finish as possible on the smallest budget.

I now have all the coats on the car and it's pretty good, but there are some very small dust/fluff bits dotted all over the place (no access to a dust-free environment) and I would like to get these out if possible. I have been wet sanding between coats which worked fine. I also want to polish and then wax the car. So, my questions are:

- Does Meguiars have suitable products for polishing and waxing white spirit/oil based paint?
- Should I first wet sand 3000 grit to get all the dust/fluff out?
- The paint is only 1 day old as I type this - should I wait some time before doing anything further?
- Is it possible to do polishing by hand?

Many thanks in advance,
Ben

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Polishing new Rustoleum hand paint job!

Hi Ben, and welcome to MOL.

Have a look through this thread for some pointers from other Rustoleum users who've gotten pretty amazing results.

[Blueline]

Re: Polishing new Rustoleum hand paint job!

I know a fellow who spray painted his Triumph TR-7 with spray cans. It turned out very, very, well. Can't offer much advise except that you should wait at leat a month to put any wax on it. Also you can polish by hand...probably better by hand with such a small car and all of the hills and valleys. Nice little cars, those Spits.

[Markus Kleis]

Re: Polishing new Rustoleum hand paint job!

Hi!

I'm a broke student and have hand painted a Triumph Spitfire with Rustoleum and it looks neat - I'm very happy! It's never going to be a show car, and the idea is to get as good a finish as possible on the smallest budget.

I now have all the coats on the car and it's pretty good, but there are some very small dust/fluff bits dotted all over the place (no access to a dust-free environment) and I would like to get these out if possible. I have been wet sanding between coats which worked fine. I also want to polish and then wax the car. So, my questions are:

- Does Meguiars have suitable products for polishing and waxing white spirit/oil based paint?
- Should I first wet sand 3000 grit to get all the dust/fluff out?
- The paint is only 1 day old as I type this - should I wait some time before doing anything further?
- Is it possible to do polishing by hand?

Many thanks in advance,
Ben

I actually painted the hood of a 2002 black BMW with this method, and here is what I can say...first off, give it time! I was forced to rush it and did not have time to let the paint cure and it seemed to be incredibly odd in its behavior when compounded or polished.

It was sucking the moisture out of the polish instantly. I had to add 50% polish to my M105 just to have more than 5 seconds working time, and it was still a pain.

I say give it 3-5 days to cure to be safe. As for sanding, depending how much texture or contamination you have, you may want to start slightly more aggressive than 3,000 grit. I did finish with 3,000, though.

M105 was the best bet for me, but again, I had to mix in other polish high in oils in order for it to have a fighting chance. I very well could have had an isolated case of some type of odd behavior, though, so test yours out and see how it works.