It's all RED now!

[John Mcgraw]

Great job John, I didn't expect anything less from you.

If you posted these pics and drawings, we might all be able to benefit from your work.

regards
Stepinwolf

Bob,


My photo hosting site will not allow posting of PDF files, and I do not have a web page, but I will be glad to send a copy of the info to anyone wanting it.

Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

John,

Another beautiful piece of work!

Rich Lagasse

Thanks Rich,

That means a lot coming from you!


Regards, John McGraw

 

[stepinwolf]

Bob,


My photo hosting site will not allow posting of PDF files, and I do not have a web page, but I will be glad to send a copy of the info to anyone wanting it.

Regards, John McGraw

John,

Just send it here robert.pelland@cgocable.ca

Thank you for your time

Stepinwolf

 

[BLACK MOON]

Looks great John. Can I ask, did you use a single stage or a base clear paint?
Sal

 

[jimbo64]

John -what is the brand and code numbers on that paint. My 64 was repainted in the 80's with a color a lot like that and I have been trying to match it. Thanks Jim

 

[John Mcgraw]

It is single stage PPG DCC (comon trade name "Concept") it is a dodge color and is either called Peacock red if you are looking at trucks, or Viper red if you are looking at Vipers! No clear going on this car, it just complicates the future touch-ups.


Regards, John McGraw

 

[BLACK MOON]

Got home this afternoon, built my garage spray booth, and got the body shot in color. Just finished cleaning up, pulling up the plastic, and quitting for the night. Now to get started on the color-sanding and polishing...........

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrow...der_id=1765783


Regards, John McGraw

John,
What process can you suggest for color sanding and polishing. I've color sanded up to 2000 grit but still have scratches and swirls that i can't get rid of. Any suggestions would be helpful/
Thanks,
Sal

 

[studiog]

John, It looks great. Being neat,clean, and bright like your shop is makes everything go so much smoother. And once again thanks for all the help you gave me when I was working on my 61. Your advice and expertise really helped me get through some critical phases of my project. Best of luck with the remainder of your C2 project.

 

[John Mcgraw]

John,
What process can you suggest for color sanding and polishing. I've color sanded up to 2000 grit but still have scratches and swirls that i can't get rid of. Any suggestions would be helpful/
Thanks,
Sal

Sal,

2000 grit for color sanding will be sufficient to get you there. I regularly go no further than 2000, and I get excellent results. I quit using compound several years ago and now just use a polish after the color sanding. It is a little more work, but it does not leave swirl marks. I use 3M Finess-it on a wool pad at less than 1000 RPM.

The key to using this polish it to start out with very high pressure and decrease to very light pressure as it dries up.
I stay on very small areas, and I don't move on until all scratches are gone, even if it takes more than one application. Finess-it will leave a glass-like finish which is totally devoid of swirl and scratches. I only use a foam pad for my final polish after the car is completely done. It quite often takes 2 or 3 applications of polish on an area before I find it acceptable. You will also find a small 3" buffer to be invaluable for the edges and tight corners. I don't know how we ever got urethane cars buffed witout them! On lacquer cars, you can always just hand rub those areas, but with urethane, it is almost impossible to hand rub. use a wool pad on the 3" buffer as well for good results. I always tape the edges and body lines with masking tape to avoid buffing through on them, and then come back with the small buffer to get the edges, as I can control it better.

I have a waterbug sander, and sand large panels with 4000 before polishing, but it is not necessary, it just makes the polish step go faster. The finess-it will remove all scratches that are 2000 or finer if you use sufficient pressure at the start of the each pass.

The only other thing that I can reccomend it to use more water when sanding to keep the paper flushed and avoid any grit getting under the paper and scratching the finished surface. I always color sand with a medium/soft sanding block to maintain a uniform scratch pattern, and avoid using my fingers in all but the tightest corners. You don't say if you sanded with a more agressive paper prior to 2000, but I normally try and avoid doing so unless I have an area of bad runs or the like. The problem with starting with , say 600 and moving up to 2000, is you never know for sure when you have the 600 grit scratches out, and the polish will not take out 600 grit scratches, no matter what!
If I ever have to use a more agressive paper, I sand more than normal with the 2000 to assure that the 600 grit scratches are gone.

Regards, John McGraw

 

[BLACK MOON]

John,
Thank you so much for the advice. Where can I find paper finer than 2500? I'd rather go to 4000 if I knew where to find it. Also, after sanding do you go straight to 'Finess-it' or do you use a polish first? Also I was told the wool pad was only for compounding and not polishing. I usually start with the blue pad and polish and then move to the white pad and 'Finess-it'.

I also used a single stage but I'm not at all happy with my finish product. I recently refinished a fender sanding with 2500 and polishing. It looks better but isn't the quality finish I want.

My problem is that I started with 800 and worked my way up. I should have sought your advice before starting. I'm afraid at this point that I may have removed too much material and need to respray the car.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Sal

 

[John Mcgraw]

John,
Thank you so much for the advice. Where can I find paper finer than 2500? I'd rather go to 4000 if I knew where to find it. Also, after sanding do you go straight to 'Finess-it' or do you use a polish first? Also I was told the wool pad was only for compounding and not polishing. I usually start with the blue pad and polish and then move to the white pad and 'Finess-it'.

I also used a single stage but I'm not at all happy with my finish product. I recently refinished a fender sanding with 2500 and polishing. It looks better but isn't the quality finish I want.

My problem is that I started with 800 and worked my way up. I should have sought your advice before starting. I'm afraid at this point that I may have removed too much material and need to respray the car.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Sal

Sal,

The 4000 is only available for machine sanding as far as I know. I buy the Mirka Abralon 2000 and 4000 grit pads for my waterbug for the large, flat panels. I have now color-sanded and buffed about 30% of my 65 body, and have yet to use anything other than 2000 paper by hand.

I go directly to finess-it and a wool pad from sanding and it is the only material I use in the polish process. It is a little slower than using compound first, but the level of finish is far superior, and you dont really need to worry about swirl marks. There are many vendors who sell the foam pads for everything, but I believe that it is impossible to beat a wool pad for buffing. In my opinion, a foam pad is only useful for the final polish/glazing of a car prior to waxing. The 3M yellow twisted wool pad, is the finest buffing pad that I have ever used. The finess-it will tent to load up a pad faster than a lot of polishes, and you will need to clean the pad after probably about 10-15 sq/ft.

It sounds like maybe you have some 800 grit scratches still showing through.
Why don't you try a wool pad and the finess-it before backing up and sanding some more with 2000. You really want to bear down on the buffer when the finess-it is wet, and you will be amazed how well it works. The slower you can run the buffer when the polish is wet, the better. An older fixed-speed buffer that runs at 2000-3000 rpm, will prove almost impossible to use, as it will just tend to sling the polish away before it cuts. I try and keep my speed below 500 rpm while working the polish, and only crank it up to 1500-1800 when dry buffing. If this does not get the scratches, you will have no option except to back up and sand some more with 2000 before proceeding. A lot of times, the scratches are not from the sandpaper, but are actually from the paint itself as it sands. If the paint is sanded too soon, sometimes it will slightly gum up the paper and this gummed up area will actually grab the paint and leave scratches. I have pushed the envelope a couple of times, and it has come back to haunt me. In any case, these marks should come out with 2000. I generally try and go directly to 2000 grit for the color sanding. It may take longer to sand out orange peel and defects with 2000, but you don't have to worry about scratches from the previous grit. If you do not use a small ammount of dish washing soap in your sanding water, start using some. The soap will float the contaminates away much better than plain water. I usually have a plastic squeeze bottle in one hand and the sanding block in the other, and am constantly squirting soapy water on the surface as I sand it.

Regards, John McGraw

 

[BLACK MOON]

Thank you John. I will give it a shot and let you know.
Best regards,
Sal

 

[RodsnRides]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

It's very motivating, seeing "works in progress" -

Keep it up-and the photos coming...great stuff.

Rick
:gap

 

[firstgear]

Herb,

No disrespect intended to your state, but wild horses could not drag me away from Austin Texas. I spent enough time in the midwest, that if I never see snow again, it will be too soon! Down here, cars never get put away for the winter, as it could be drivable weather almost any day of the year!

Regards, John McGraw

no problem...my dad was born in Austin and grew up there, WWII caused him to meet my mom in the service and she was from upper state New York, somehow they settled in Ohio because one of his service buddies father owned a Pontiac/Cadillac dealership in Ohio and he came here to be a mechanic for them back in the late 40's.

As a kid growing up I kept saying lets move to California, they looked at me like I was crazy! Had we moved to California, we could be selling now and moving back to Ohio or anywhere else for that matter and have 5 homes!!!!

By the way, the Longhorns played OSU this year and we had quite the jabs going back and forth! It is very quiet from his end right now....haha

 

[BarryK]

Bob,


My photo hosting site will not allow posting of PDF files, and I do not have a web page, but I will be glad to send a copy of the info to anyone wanting it.

Regards, John McGraw

John
if you are willing to have me host the PDF file for you I'll be more than happy to add it to my website's tech articles page and it goes without saying your name would be listed for proper credit on it.
I know that many would benefit from it.

Barry