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Our Advanced Classes are always great fun because the subject matter is usually pretty new to everyone and, although they have experience with DA polishing, the general eagerness to learn rotary polishing is very high.
The class isn't just about rotary polishing, however, as it also includes wet sanding and damp sanding techniques. Here we're getting ready to wrap a sheet of 1000 grit Unigrit sand paper over a hand pad. There are rare instances where you will forego the use of this pad when hand sanding, but for the extreme majority of the time you want this pad in place when hand sanding.
We start out with plenty of water on the surface, sand paper that has been soaking overnight in water, and then we use straight line strokes (never in a circular pattern when hand sanding!!) and we overlap the strokes as we work across the surface.
Here you get a better idea of the overlap as we move across the work area.
See that white residue on the sand paper? That's the clear coat that has been removed.
After hand sanding with 1000 grit we moved to a finer grit and cut at an angle to our initial strokes. This cross cutting allows you to initially knock down the tops of the sanding marks you created in the first step, and later on gives you a visual indication of which step you need to refine if you later on discover any remaining sanding marks.
To really refine the surface we move to our Unigrit finishing discs and the DA sander. Doing this will refine the surface so much that you'll actually start to pick up gloss on the surface even though you're still sanding. This ultimately makes the compounding process faster and less invasive to the paint. This DA sanding is highly controlled, introduces no potentially damaging heat to the paint, and really refines the surface.
Keeping the face of the finishing disc clean is critically important. A simple spraying of the surface with plain water is all it takes to remove the clear coat residue.
Again, that white foam is clear coat suspended in the water.
Moving on to the compounding step, we started with a 4" wool pad and M101 to remove sanding marks close to the edge of the panel.
Before working with the wool pad, we cleaned it of any old, dried product by spurring it.
The pad washer is another great option for cleaning your pads on the fly, or for final cleaning before putting them away for a future project.
Rotary buffing may sound a bit daunting, but fingertip control is really about all you need to keep the tool doing what you want it to do, where you want it to do it. Don't fight it and it won't fight you.
Edge buffing can be tricky, and potentially dangerous. Here we were demonstrating not only how to ensure the pad is rotating off the surface rather than onto the edge, but we also did some demonstrations on rapidly escalating heat when using a foam cutting pad on a rotary.
With the demos over and lunch consumed, it was time for the students to get some solid hands on time with the various porocesses and tools.
This is what the surface looks like after hand sanding in two directions, using two different grades of sand paper. You can see how the reflection just stops dead at the sanding marks - there is zero gloss here.
This is what the surface looks like after refining the sanding marks all the way to 3000 grit on the DA. You can actually see reflections in the paint again, and the surface is very uniform in appearance.
Nasty scratches before getting started on this demo panel.
After rotary buffing with M101 on a wool pad, then M205 on a foam pad, and this is the result. This is the exact same spot as shown in the image above.
And this is one happy student!
Here's another area that had been fully sanded, compounded and polished. Not a mark in it!
Same area, just with our overhead lights. Beautiful!!
Sergio, admiring his work. Nicely done,sir!!!
The class isn't just about rotary polishing, however, as it also includes wet sanding and damp sanding techniques. Here we're getting ready to wrap a sheet of 1000 grit Unigrit sand paper over a hand pad. There are rare instances where you will forego the use of this pad when hand sanding, but for the extreme majority of the time you want this pad in place when hand sanding.
We start out with plenty of water on the surface, sand paper that has been soaking overnight in water, and then we use straight line strokes (never in a circular pattern when hand sanding!!) and we overlap the strokes as we work across the surface.
Here you get a better idea of the overlap as we move across the work area.
See that white residue on the sand paper? That's the clear coat that has been removed.
After hand sanding with 1000 grit we moved to a finer grit and cut at an angle to our initial strokes. This cross cutting allows you to initially knock down the tops of the sanding marks you created in the first step, and later on gives you a visual indication of which step you need to refine if you later on discover any remaining sanding marks.
To really refine the surface we move to our Unigrit finishing discs and the DA sander. Doing this will refine the surface so much that you'll actually start to pick up gloss on the surface even though you're still sanding. This ultimately makes the compounding process faster and less invasive to the paint. This DA sanding is highly controlled, introduces no potentially damaging heat to the paint, and really refines the surface.
Keeping the face of the finishing disc clean is critically important. A simple spraying of the surface with plain water is all it takes to remove the clear coat residue.
Again, that white foam is clear coat suspended in the water.
Moving on to the compounding step, we started with a 4" wool pad and M101 to remove sanding marks close to the edge of the panel.
Before working with the wool pad, we cleaned it of any old, dried product by spurring it.
The pad washer is another great option for cleaning your pads on the fly, or for final cleaning before putting them away for a future project.
Rotary buffing may sound a bit daunting, but fingertip control is really about all you need to keep the tool doing what you want it to do, where you want it to do it. Don't fight it and it won't fight you.
Edge buffing can be tricky, and potentially dangerous. Here we were demonstrating not only how to ensure the pad is rotating off the surface rather than onto the edge, but we also did some demonstrations on rapidly escalating heat when using a foam cutting pad on a rotary.
With the demos over and lunch consumed, it was time for the students to get some solid hands on time with the various porocesses and tools.
This is what the surface looks like after hand sanding in two directions, using two different grades of sand paper. You can see how the reflection just stops dead at the sanding marks - there is zero gloss here.
This is what the surface looks like after refining the sanding marks all the way to 3000 grit on the DA. You can actually see reflections in the paint again, and the surface is very uniform in appearance.
Nasty scratches before getting started on this demo panel.
After rotary buffing with M101 on a wool pad, then M205 on a foam pad, and this is the result. This is the exact same spot as shown in the image above.
And this is one happy student!
Here's another area that had been fully sanded, compounded and polished. Not a mark in it!
Same area, just with our overhead lights. Beautiful!!
Sergio, admiring his work. Nicely done,sir!!!
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