Polish and foil

[berr13]

What's the best sequence: polish then foil, or foil then polish?  Or does it matter?  I don't have anything to experiment on, and I'm wondering if foil will adhere to a polished body, and for that matter what the polishing process will do to applied foil.   Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

Jim

[Snake45]

Polish, then foil. That way the surface under the foil is smooth too. Otherwise it risks looking like glued-on chewing gum wrappers, no matter how neatly applied. 

Foil sticks to a polished surface just fine. It won't stick to wax, though, so leave that for later. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

59 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Polish, then foil. That way the surface under the foil is smooth too. Otherwise it risks looking like glued-on chewing gum wrappers, no matter how neatly applied. 

Foil sticks to a polished surface just fine. It won't stick to wax, though, so leave that for later. 

X2.

 

Steve

[ewetwo]

Polish as in the Pledge Future? 

[Snake45]

31 minutes ago, ewetwo said:

Polish as in the Pledge Future? 

Pledge Future is not a polish, it's a glossy clearcoat.

A polish uses an abrasive material to remove paint (or plastic) down to a perfectly smooth, even, shiny surface.

[StevenGuthmiller]

31 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Pledge Future is not a polish, it's a glossy clearcoat.

A polish uses an abrasive material to remove paint (or plastic) down to a perfectly smooth, even, shiny surface.

X2!

 

Steve

[berr13]

I should have specified--my bad.  I'm using Novus #2.

[ewetwo]

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

Pledge Future is not a polish, it's a glossy clearcoat.

A polish uses an abrasive material to remove paint (or plastic) down to a perfectly smooth, even, shiny surface.

Ok. Thanks. I wasn't sure. 

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, berr13 said:

I should have specified--my bad.  I'm using Novus #2.

I don't know if that has anything in it (such as silicone or wax) that would interfere with foil sticking later. I've never used it.

I polish with Wright's Silver Cream, which has none of that in it--it's just a fine abrasive in some sort of water-soluble carrier. Been using it for decades.

[ewetwo]

You do that after you paint? That gives it a shinny finish? You do this before the silver paint? And before you actually put the car together. Curious minds want to know. Or at least one curious mind does. 

[Fat Brian]

36 minutes ago, ewetwo said:

You do that after you paint? That gives it a shinny finish? You do this before the silver paint? And before you actually put the car together. Curious minds want to know. Or at least one curious mind does. 

I usually save painting the body until after most of the test fitting and building is done, that way I can handle it the least amount possible. When painting it goes primer, sand, paint, clearcoat, cure time, polish, then finally foil or whatever you like for the trim.

[ewetwo]

1 hour ago, Fat Brian said:

I usually save painting the body until after most of the test fitting and building is done, that way I can handle it the least amount possible. When painting it goes primer, sand, paint, clearcoat, cure time, polish, then finally foil or whatever you like for the trim.

I never knew this. 

[Snake45]

3 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

 When painting it goes primer, sand, paint, clearcoat, cure time, polish, then finally foil or whatever you like for the trim.

Yeah, that's the general sequence. 

[berr13]

Given some of my paint jobs, I think I'm going to have to start inserting "wet sanding" between paint and clear coat.

Thanks to all for the tips!

Jim

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

9 hours ago, Snake45 said:

I don't know if that has anything in it (such as silicone or wax) that would interfere with foil sticking later. I've never used it.

I use Novus polishes all of the time.

Zero issues whatsoever with foil adhesion.

 

Steve

Edited May 1, 2018 by StevenGuthmiller

[Snake45]

45 minutes ago, berr13 said:

Given some of my paint jobs, I think I'm going to have to start inserting "wet sanding" between paint and clear coat.

Thanks to all for the tips!

Jim

 

Wet sanding is a standard trick in my bag. Unless I've got a really bad booger somewhere along the way, I use it near the end, after all the paint/clear is on, but before polish. 

I just wet-sanded and polished a Corvette last week--came out quite nice. Once again I learned the lesson, every minute spent wet-sanding with #1500 is worth five to ten minutes of polishing. I spent one whole evening just trying to polish the trunk/rear deck area of the body, and still had orange peel in it. The next night I attacked it and the rest of the body with the #1500, and had it all smooth in one evening. The next evening it was no problem to polish the body out to final shine. Not only was it no problem, it was quite a bit of fun! 

[Fat Brian]

2 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Yeah, that's the general sequence. 

He asked, I'm just trying to help.

[Snake45]

19 minutes ago, Fat Brian said:

He asked, I'm just trying to help.

Yes, you did. You had it right and I was just trying to back you up. Sorry if it came across any other way. 

[Fat Brian]

10 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Yes, you did. You had it right and I was just trying to back you up. Sorry if it came across any other way. 

No, you're fine.

[berr13]

Just to add another twist...I got out my Bare-Metal foil tonight, just to check it out.  I'm in that "getting ready to start getting ready" mode.  The first sentence in the instructions: "Bare-Metal is not meant to stick to a slick surface.".   Guess I'll just try it and see what happens.  I've always got chrome silver paint for a backup.

[Bainford]

8 hours ago, berr13 said:

  The first sentence in the instructions: "Bare-Metal is not meant to stick to a slick surface.".   

FWIW, during the polishing of the paint, I sand away the paint from the window trim and then polish the bare plastic right along with the body paint, to a very high polish. The smoother the surface, the smoother and shinier the BMF will be. Adhesion has never been a problem, and on numerous occasions I have given it plenty of reason to fail.

On my latest build I fully polished the paint and the BMF application areas, and then applied the BMF. I then managed to damage the paint on about 80% of the body's surface. That body then went through another complete wet colour sanding and polishing to save the paint, which would be considered abusive handling on the BMF. It never budged, even on exposed features such as the door handles. In my experience, once BMF is down and well burnished, it simply doesn't come off, even with frequent handling, so long as the application surface is clean.

[StevenGuthmiller]

9 hours ago, berr13 said:

Just to add another twist...I got out my Bare-Metal foil tonight, just to check it out.  I'm in that "getting ready to start getting ready" mode.  The first sentence in the instructions: "Bare-Metal is not meant to stick to a slick surface.".   Guess I'll just try it and see what happens.  I've always got chrome silver paint for a backup.

In my experience, (and I've been using it for probably a quarter of a century) BMF adheres much better to a smooth shiny surface than it does to a dull one.

The slicker the better.

 

Steve