Buffing recently painted panels?

C

clnfrk

New member
This is probably a silly question to ask since the paint is wetsanded and buffed at the body shop, but I have to ask anyways. The paintwork is very good, but in the right sunlight I do see the trademark body shop induced swirls in my white paint. Can I proceed to correct these areas now or should I wait for a certain period of time before the paint is buffed again?
 
The paint can be buffed using a body shop safe polish, like Menzerna. You however can't seal the paint for about 30 days after it's been painted, unless if water based paint and clear were used. Many shops have switched to water based paint, but still using solvent based clearcoats. Few have switched to both water based base and clear.





John
 
Accumulator said:
clnfrk- Note that the paint might be a little on the soft side while it's curing.
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Would I be correct in assuming that this is a good thing as it should make for easier correction? Any downsides to the paint potentially being on the soft side? I was thinking of trying Meg's ultimate compound and then 105 if that isn't aggressive enough followed with 205.
 
clnfrk said:
Would I be correct in assuming that this is a good thing as it should make for easier correction? Any downsides to the paint potentially being on the soft side?
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Usually, but I've had some (RM brand b/c) that were *so* soft it was almost impossible to polish them because everything kept causing micromarring. Problem went away after a few weeks.





I was thinking of trying Meg's ultimate compound and then 105 if that isn't aggressive enough followed with 205.
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That might work fine, you'll just have to try it. FWIW, I myself lean towards the older-tech M80 for stuff like this and just accept that it might not turn out quite the way I'd like until later when the the paint has finished outgassing/curing and I can use different stuff.



The old, diminishing abrasive stuff like M80 and the new nondiminishing-abrasive stuff like M205 are simply *different* so you can't really compare their (basically similar) levels of cut. One just sometimes works better for a given application.
 
I totally agree with Accumulator -- M80 is the first thing I'd reach for in this scenario. Old-school, but effective and from what I've been told it even has a "fresh paint safe sealant" in it to give you a moderate level of protection, albeit short lived.
 
I finished all of the correcting, minus the jeweling step yesterday and it came out really nice. The marring was so bad it took me the whole day to complete, but I took alot of breaks in between. I didn't even mess with the ultimate compound, mainly because I did not see anywhere on the bottle that it is body shop safe. I also pretty much knew that I would need the more aggressive cut of the 105. I started off with an LC orange and at first was pleased with the results until I encountered some spots where it just wasn't enough. Upon closer inspection of the areas that I thought at first had corrected 100%, I still noticed traces of pigtails here and there. I then moved on to the purple foamed wool and once again was happy with it's performance up until I ran into another area where it just wasn't correcting as I had hoped. Finally, I went ahead and tried out a white wool pad that I think came with my Harbor Freight rotary. Its more like the purple foamed wool than the typical heavy cutting variety. I did need to go over certain areas like the doors with multiple passes, but in the end pretty much everything came out except a couple of small fisheyes that I noticed.



I must say that this combo finished up very well and under the halogens the paint came out totally marring free. In hard sunlight I do notice very faint hologramming, but its almost so little to notice. Next time the car gets washed I plan on following up with either 205 or the PO85rd that I still have yet to open.
 
JohnKleven said:
The paint can be buffed using a body shop safe polish, like Menzerna.
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The only reason one would use a "body shop safe polish" is in a body shop setting. This is because there is silicone in many polishing compounds and glazes which could interfere with the shop's ability to paint clean. Silicone gets in the air and can remain airborne for quite a while and can cause major problems if it lands anywhere near the paint booth area.



JohnKleven said:
You however can't seal the paint for about 30 days after it's been painted, unless if water based paint and clear were used. Many shops have switched to water based paint, but still using solvent based clearcoats. Few have switched to both water based base and clear.
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Just because paint is water-based doesn't mean that solvents aren't still used in the paint formulation. They are actually. Just less. Whether the clear is water or solvent-based has nothing to do with outgassing/curing rate.





clnfrk - check into the sealing products Optimum offers. They make one called Car Wax that is fresh paint safe. 85rd is a great choice for final polishing that works great with a rotary and DA.
 
some questions



body shop safe = no silicones

paintable = something the paint solvents can handle

permits outgassing = solvents outgas or byproducts that aren't solvents can still outgas?
 
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