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I recently polished my older 1998 Land Rover. It's used only offroad and the factory metallic base / clear-coat paint was severely abused. It's always parked outside or left in the bush. It had tons of scratches from driving through brush, and to maintain it I only ever washed it off with a pressure washer. So it's a great canvas for experimenting and learning.
I wet-sanded with 1500, 2000, 2500. I made a mistake of using my fingers for some of this, but then I used a 3M rubber block. After sanding, I used M105 on a foam bonnet with a Craftsman orbital. I got this machine when I was a kid. I know it's on the weak side, but it's kept me out of trouble. I followed up with M205 on foam/orbital. Then I used No. 7 by hand (foam applicator, microfiber wipe). I finished it with the last of my old bottle of NXT 1.0
I studied the results. Obviously I have some deep scratches and chips that penetrate the base coat and I'm not going to do anything with those. I also have some deep scratches that don't appear to break the base coat but the 1500 did not level. Still, I removed an incredible amount of scratching. Almost all the scratching is parallel to the ground (driving past brush). I also eliminated swirl marks. The base is dark metallic green and between the M205 and the No. 7, it's amazing how the swirl marks are eliminated.
But besides scratches, I also have some troubling defects (well, troubling if this wasn't just a brush truck). The panels have ripples and waves. I photographed some of the vertical ripples on the quarter panel. I have some like this on the fenders too. Other places, I have waves, so the reflection will have a single big ripple in it.
This is a factory paint job. Is this just poor panel quality? I assume for a custom-job, this would be addressed with a guide-coat and block sanding until it's straight. What makes one factory panel better than another, and why are some like this and some better?
Is there another issue going on here? I researched "urethane peel" (not orange peel) as a possible diagnosis, and I also considered what using my fingers part of the time on the sand paper might have done. FWIW, I tested on a heavily rippled fender. I block-sanded with 1500 more intensely than I did before, and repeated with 2000, 2500, and the rest of the regimen. There was absolutely no change in the ripples.
Any ideas? What's going on here and why?
I wet-sanded with 1500, 2000, 2500. I made a mistake of using my fingers for some of this, but then I used a 3M rubber block. After sanding, I used M105 on a foam bonnet with a Craftsman orbital. I got this machine when I was a kid. I know it's on the weak side, but it's kept me out of trouble. I followed up with M205 on foam/orbital. Then I used No. 7 by hand (foam applicator, microfiber wipe). I finished it with the last of my old bottle of NXT 1.0
I studied the results. Obviously I have some deep scratches and chips that penetrate the base coat and I'm not going to do anything with those. I also have some deep scratches that don't appear to break the base coat but the 1500 did not level. Still, I removed an incredible amount of scratching. Almost all the scratching is parallel to the ground (driving past brush). I also eliminated swirl marks. The base is dark metallic green and between the M205 and the No. 7, it's amazing how the swirl marks are eliminated.
But besides scratches, I also have some troubling defects (well, troubling if this wasn't just a brush truck). The panels have ripples and waves. I photographed some of the vertical ripples on the quarter panel. I have some like this on the fenders too. Other places, I have waves, so the reflection will have a single big ripple in it.
This is a factory paint job. Is this just poor panel quality? I assume for a custom-job, this would be addressed with a guide-coat and block sanding until it's straight. What makes one factory panel better than another, and why are some like this and some better?
Is there another issue going on here? I researched "urethane peel" (not orange peel) as a possible diagnosis, and I also considered what using my fingers part of the time on the sand paper might have done. FWIW, I tested on a heavily rippled fender. I block-sanded with 1500 more intensely than I did before, and repeated with 2000, 2500, and the rest of the regimen. There was absolutely no change in the ripples.
Any ideas? What's going on here and why?