Is a repaint clear harder than factory?

dave40co

dave40co

New member
I am working on my wife's very abused (before we bought it!) '01 blue Grand Am. It is a repaint. It has swirls, oxidation, water etching and many random scratches. I am not expecting to restore it to a show car condition, but want to make it better. I used my UDM and an orange LLC pad with #83 on it yesterday and greatly improved the panels I worked on but can still see some of the defects. Any help would be appreciated as to making the result better! The car looks great at 5 feet but up close you can see all of the defects!

Also how do you work with the UDM on the curvy panels of this car?

Does the middle of the pad do the work or do the edges?

I don't know how you pros do this everyday, this 51 year old grandpa is worn out from buffing about a third of this car!!!
 
Just a quick guess - slow down your polisher to remove the tougher defects. Follow up the coarse pad (I am assuming the orange is a cutting pad, I'm not realy sure) with a finer polish pad and a final polish.

I believe you should keep the pads flat on the surface as much as possible. So, in effect, the "face" of the pad should stay in contact with your finish.
 
your only going to improve the paint so much with the UDM, the udm is nice but its not going to polish and cut like a rotary, most dual action machines like the udm with a course pad and abrasive compound are not going to correct the paint on a rough 6 or 7 year old car...... i would be content with the results you got the 5ft rule is a good standard :) ...... dont worry about the curves on the car, i normally just follow the curve with the machine, however with a rotary thats something you need to keep in mind, the udm is easy to use no real precautions need to be taken, just use common sense and play around with different speeds and pads..... good look, and post some pics if you can
 
dave40co said:
I am working on my wife's very abused (before we bought it!) '01 blue Grand Am. It is a repaint. It has swirls, oxidation, water etching and many random scratches. I am not expecting to restore it to a show car condition, but want to make it better. I used my UDM and an orange LLC pad with #83 on it yesterday and greatly improved the panels I worked on but can still see some of the defects. Any help would be appreciated as to making the result better! The car looks great at 5 feet but up close you can see all of the defects!

Also how do you work with the UDM on the curvy panels of this car?

Does the middle of the pad do the work or do the edges?

I don't know how you pros do this everyday, this 51 year old grandpa is worn out from buffing about a third of this car!!!
Click to expand...

Quite a bit more paint is used when the car is repainted. The hardness and quality of the paint is going to vary because shops have their own way of painting. Some use more hardeners than others. Some use better quality paint than others.

You are using some good products and assuming you have worked small sections at a time using the right amount of product then I would say your finish is not going to improve much more without the use of a rotary polisher as already mentioned.

As far as "how we pros do this everyday" You really need to have a strong back and good technique. I have improved my technique over the years but unfortunately it has already taken it's toll on my back.:( I don't detail as much as I used to so it is bearable, but I doubt I would be able to do it full time anymore.
 
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