noob's fist post

[73corvette]

Hi guy,s
first let me introduce myself name is Richand I'm an old dude who's been doing his own car stuff since I was 16 y.o, I'm in so.cal., San Diego to be exact. I need some help on a problem I've created. I have a 73 vette that is my baby and it had a couple cracks in the front that I decided to fix.Did that and decided that instead if just touching up that i'd paint the front.well I did that with no problem and it looked great. and I read on the web that it should be clear coated. so I thought I'd add that. the base coat had a nice shine and I wet sanded it and kooke even better so I put the clear coat on, 3 coats 10 min. apart and the third coat as I heard was supposed to be the one that shines "not" it's back to dull so I ordered some M105 thinking that might do but haven't got it yet. Now my question us, why is the clear coat dull and will using the M105 solve the problem? I was planning on doing it by hand when i get the m105
Sorry for the long post and maybe I'm not in the right place, but I was wondering if someone could help me out with this problem.
TIA
These are great forums I bookmarked it about 12 times so I could find it any where I looked.
Rich

[Michael Stoops]

Re: noob's fist post

Hi Rich, and welcome to MOL!!

We're going to move this thread to a different section since not everyone checks out the "Introduce Yourself" area and you've got some pretty advanced questions going on here.

As to your question, though, it really sounds as though you'll need at least some wet sanding and rotary buffing to really bring up maximum shine. Yes, M105 on a rotary buffer with a wool pad will most likely bring up some shine, but probably not quite to the level you really want. Wet sand, cut and buff is pretty standard practice for getting the most out of a paint job, even with clear coat.

Now, this whole sanding and rotary buffing isn't really recommended for a novice, and we don't know what your experience and skill level is - but the fact that you took on a painting project on your beloved '73 Corvette tells us you're not afraid to learn as you go. Still..... it's very easy to mess up, and mess up big & fast, if you don't know what you're doing when wet sanding and rotary buffing. Whether the nose of your baby is what you want to be learning on or if you think a junk yard panel is a better first test subject is up to you, but we lean heavily toward the junk panel. That assumes, of course, that you're totally new to this.

You may be able to get the job accomplished with just some 2000 & 3000 grit sandpaper, depending on how much orange peel you have, what your expectations are, etc. Go lightly and see how it buffs out - you can easily go back and sand more or buff more if need be, but adding more paint is a whole lot more work!!! Selecting top quality sand paper, such as Meguiar's Unigrit Finishing Papers, and keeping the area well flooded with water so as to keep any particulate from accumulating and causing tracers (deeper, random sanding marks) will make your buffing process that much easier. Always use a backing pad or block when sanding so as not to put finger grooves in the paint.

Read through some of the threads on wet sanding here and elsewhere and get a feel for some of the techniques and process others have used. Just proceed slowly, cautiously and with eyes wide open.

Or find a junk panel.