Polishing paint?

[metalhead]

I have been experimenting with different types of paints lately. I have sprayed a couple and put a few coats of clear over it. I was wondering if there's a specific method of polishing out the paint to get that mirror shine. I hear a lot of guys say they polish the paint after a gloss coat. But I can't find a method that works for me. The reason I ask is that I look at Tim Ahlborn's truck models and the paint finish is ridiculously good.

do you wet sand the clear coat to polish it out or is there some magic science behind it? I really want to make my models look better, so I'll take all the help I can get. Thanks,

RYAN.

[Ramfins59]

I use Novus 2 plastic Polish. You can also get good results using a set of polishing cloths with progressively finer grades of "grit", from 3200 to 12,000. Just be sure to stay away from high points on the body or sharp edges, where you could polish through to either the primer or the plastic.

[crazyjim]

I shoot a 2 part urethane clear and hit it with the polishing cloths that Rich mentioned. To do the wet sanding, I put a squirt of Dawn dishwashing liquid (the blue stuff) into a container and add water. The Dawn seems to make the water wetter. After all the sanding I use a soft flannel cloth with Maguirs Scratch X to shine it up and complete the process with The Treatment Model Car Wax.

[jeffbrad]

I do the color sand with 2000 wet then polish with Meguiar's 3. I use automotive paints and that works for me. The polishing kits work great on the softer enamels. Finish wax with Treatment or any carnauba wax

[W-409]

I have this kit. After the clear coat has dried about one week, I start polishing. With the 2400 grit and with that I polish until the paint job is smooth, but it's better to be careful here, because it's possible to polish through the clear coat. Then I go through all of those grits, the finest one is 8000. After that I use the liquid in that white bottle that is in the picture. That sure makes the paint job look better, and finally, AutoGlym Super Resin Polish wax, and I end up with this kind of results.

If you didn't quite understand what I said, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer more clearly.

The "Trial And Error" is a good way to learn, that's how I started also, but actually I haven't messed up any bodies while polishing...

[Bernard Kron]

In general your paint will never look better than the worst coat so I tend to wet sand with 2000 grit as I go, starting with the final primer coat after bodywork. If at all possible I let the paint cure between coats for several days so it's nice and hard. Once I begin with the color coats I use 2000 grit (wet) to knock down any grain that may have been greated, then a set of 6 polishing cloths I have that start at 3200 and go to 12000. I have used the polishing cloths both wet and dry and find that they are more agressive dry, so I tend to do the early coats dry, then switching to using them wet with the final coats when I want to avoid removing too much paint. The trick of putting a drop of liquid detergent in your sanding water already mentioned works well for me. It helps float away the sanding residue and avoid any random scratches.

In general the less paint the better. The more thin the paint appears the more real the car looks in scale. So not burning through you layers is a key issue. If my paint is starting to look really shiny and deep I will stop using the coarser grits. The holy grail is not to polishing at all. Enamel paint in my experience gets you closer to this ideal than lacquer. I have no experience with automotive urethanes because I'm still a rattle can guy. I'm still dependent on polishing but dream of the day that I will pull one off that doesn't need it! I have seen staggeringly beautiful unpolished model paint jobs and IMHO they are superior to any polished ones, however nice.