Buffing New Paint
Buffing New Paint I am working on painting the front end of my car and am going to wetsand up to 2000 grit and use a heavy cut, medium cut, and Meguiars Fine Cut Compound. I tried the following steps on my laptop I painted/cleared a while back just for a test (done all by hand due to the small surface) and when I got to the Fine cut, after 3 passes I had a good shine going, but it wasn't the deep look I was looking for. Added cleaner wax, then wax and it's still not perfect.
After the fine cut, should I use a machine glaze or some kind of polish? I know I should but I hear of some people using both. What's your preference?
After the fine cut, should I use a machine glaze or some kind of polish? I know I should but I hear of some people using both. What's your preference?
you're steps look fine, and are what I use on my fiance's DD quite often (except im picky as crap about it and add a 2500 and 3000 step, also a cleaner wax after fine cut probably beating a dead horse at that point tho)... lol. The lack of depth on the painted PC was probably from a lack of Clear (shallow Clear Coat doesn't leave much depth). I've been painting some model cars lately to work on my methods, and it has shown me this a few times lol. Good luck! 
its all in the prep and how smooth whatever surface you're painting is. you can paint over crappy bodywork and ten coats of clear, color sand, buff, wax, etc and it'll still look like crap
the 'deepest' paint I ever saw was a '69 Roadrunner my old boss/trainer painted - he straightened the body for what seemed like weeks, base coated and blocked, repeated at least five times. After that, he cleared, baked, and blocked again. Once the color sanding, polishing and waxing was completed, I swear it looked like you could reach into the body... the color was the factory brown but it was almost like looking over the edge of a boat and being able to see 2-3 feet down to the sand on the bottom of the lake
the 'deepest' paint I ever saw was a '69 Roadrunner my old boss/trainer painted - he straightened the body for what seemed like weeks, base coated and blocked, repeated at least five times. After that, he cleared, baked, and blocked again. Once the color sanding, polishing and waxing was completed, I swear it looked like you could reach into the body... the color was the factory brown but it was almost like looking over the edge of a boat and being able to see 2-3 feet down to the sand on the bottom of the lake
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Joined: Jul 2011
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From: LOMPTON, CA
gotta start with a wicked clean surface too..recomend clay bar, then quick detail spray with a clean micro fiber, clean is the key...and let the tools do the work...light and long will give you a great finish, if you have a good base to start with...
You need to keep using the heavy cut until it looks pretty damn good. I use 3m 6085 rubbing compound with a white foam compounding pad. I usually buff it 3-4 times with the cutting compound. it usually looks near perfect by the time I am done cutting it. Then I move to a finishing foam pad with swirl remover, usually 3-4 more passes. It is long, hard and tedious work, but that is what it takes to get it looking good.
Would a random orbital suffice for the polishing steps? I have a rotary buffer as well, it's hard to get with a rotary bumper (too many curves to snag). My RO buffer is smaller than the rotary
