Frustration City!

[Steven Langston]

Steven Langston

January 27, 2012 at 11:31 pm #35549

Hi peeps,

new to refinishing. i restore old Citroen cars for my hobby. Over the last few years i have had wll the body work done by a retired guy not to far away.

he has done me the panels off the car im working on but he hasn’t compounded or polished them as he’s snowed under with work form his son(who gives him bits of work from his own refinishing business)

so i have kitted myself out with some farecla g3, 3m fast cut and finesse-it a dual action polisher some mops, flatting paper 1500 and 2000.

i have been using 1500 then 2000 to remove the orange peel(sanding down until i cant see any shiny bits) i use a rubber block with the paper wrapped around. all looks fine at this stage.

so i tried some g3 with a damp to wet mop and polished away for ages. i am getting some issues, im not sure what im doing wrong, am i doing it long enough? hard enough? do i need to clean the mop often? basically on some panels all is well, especially on corners, but on the flat where i want the best shine scratches show through. not swirls, but straight lines. so i flat back down and redo…but them more scratches seem to appear! i would have thought that after flatting, if you cant see any scratches you should be ok to compound? im at a loss!

im not confident the painter used the correct mix with activator, is there anything he could have done that could be causing the problems im having or is it my technique?

i also tried m3 fast cut followed by finesse it with a dry mop…but i still don’t seem to be making progress on some panels.

another issue i have is where i have chips in the paintwork at the edges(bottom of door where he set the doors down, in the past he has touched these up with a small watercolour brush and some paint…) and also where my inexperience has cause me to rub through to the primer(and metal in 2 small areas)

how do i blow these in? there are many guides on the net for other things but ive not found much about rectifying this type of problem. the paint is a solid light green colour with no clear coat. i have a little paint left from the paint job and hope to by a detailing gun. any help/ advice/guides would be most useful!

Many thanks and sorry for the wordyness!

Steve

[tommy]

tommy

January 28, 2012 at 12:59 pm #35565

Hi i would advise you buy a rotary polisher … da is ok for finishing etc but not for cutting

Sounds like there is some colour broken through too …i would either take it back to the painter or buy the paint and do this yourself …. the painter maybe able to blow this in AS SUCH but the correct way is to dust in the repairs and clear the full thing

hope this helps

tommy

[Steven Langston]

Steven Langston

January 28, 2012 at 7:13 pm #35571

Thanks Tommy,

i will get a rotary and see if it improves.

Can you give some guidance on dusting in a small repair area? i will be buying a small detailing gun on Monday and have some paint….

cheers

steve

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