Clear coat & polishing!

[my 70 chevelle ss]

Forgive me for this but I have been away from modeling for a long while & things sure have changed. I'm about to clear coat a car I'm buliding (I did not even know what clear coat was) I use Taymia & have had good luck with it. But that is all I do is clear coat nothing after that. I have been reading on here about sanding with this grit paper & polishing with this stuff. So what I would like to know is if someone can tell me how one goes about doing all this sanding what grit polishing using what & anything else?. You see I have been scared to sand as I always break through the paint & also thought the Clear took the place of all this but guess not I'm just lost when I read all this stuff I do not enter my models in shows but would like to learn this stuff so any help would be greart!

Thank you so very much!

Will.

[Greg Cullinan]

I'm surprised no one has helped.I am very curious about this as well. I have a whole box of polishing supplies that I heard of on this site in bits and pieces but never a tutorial that I recall.

I believe Mrobsessive has a topic about a 49 Merc that has some good polishing info and also Treehuggerdave has a paint tutorial that may have gone into polishing. Good luck and if you figure it out tell me!

[randx0]

sorry to make you wait I thought someone had answered your question.when we talk about polishing after the clear coat it is done with a polishing kit that has from 1200 grit sanding clothand it goes all the way up to 12000 grit Yes 12000 grit. most don't use the 1200 if your paint job is relatively smooth you can start with 3600 and work your way up sanding across the "grain " of the previous grit til you get to the final one .the companies that make these polishing kits have changed since I purchased mine so I don't know who is making them currently. I also recommend the treehugger method it cuts way down on time and polishing. good luck hope this helps and sorry again for not getting to this question sooner.

[MikeMc]

Polishing your clearcoat. WHY??????

If you are shooting Tamiya Ts series lacquers use TS13 clear and if you do it correctly little or no polishing is needed. Most of my knowledge is from Zoom Zoom on the forum and in his books. Bob teaches that with Tamiya lacquers and the shrinkage when they are dry, the big trick is to have smooth primer. After I primer I wet sand with 400 & 800 grits untill the baby bottom stage is reached. Now I wash it and blow dry and get in the booth.

I lay on 2 or 3 mist coats about 15 min apart followed by 2 wet coats also 15 min apart. Followed by 2 or 3 mist coats of TS13....all these coats have been applied thru the airbrush using decanted Tamiya TS basecoats and TS13 . Then follow with 2 wet coats of TS 13....right out of the can(I use a new can here).......let dry and if it is not smooth enough use a little of Tamiya polish...I find that if My primer is slick I rarely need to polish......