I'M STOKKED!!!

[RICH MUISE]

James..your 1000th post!  I guess this is a good time to thank you once again for this website and all the time you've put in for us. For a while I thought I was going to get to 1000 before you..lol

[shopratwoody]

Rich,
That's in 10 years...

[JPotter57]

lol....
Has it really been that long?  Wow...Time really does fly when you're having fun...

[RICH MUISE]

A little update...finally got the last major component sprayed today ( passenger side door)...been working on the fun stuff...assembling new parts I've been buying or restoring and having to put on the shelves until car was painted. Got the last piece of stainless restored...the passenger side spear...and put on along with the polished nos striker plate....love the new stuff. It makes all the hard work rewarding.
The door is complete now except for a new key cylinder assembly,and gettig the window frame finished up.The door panel is being finished up..need to rework the pull handle I had on it..., and then get the passenger side done.

[Ford Blue blood]

She is looking pretty shiney Rich!  Nice job!

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks Bill.Now that I'm done with my stainless restoration (I think), I'd sure like to find out how the pros do it. I spent 3 full days on the piece in the pic and it wasn't all that bad to begin with. If I ever do any more I'm going to look into 3M skotchbrite wheels for 'roughing' them out prior to final stages. We used them in machine shop for deburring parts back in the 70's. They were just used on a pedistal grinder. I assume they still make them. An 8" x 1" wheel back then was 30+ dollars...I can imagine what they're priced at now. The wheels will remove a small amount of metal without leaving the scratches a normal abrasive would. The closest thing to that that I used were some diamond impregnated rubber wheels for a 4" grinder I had gotten at Harbor Freight. The concave surfaces of the side pieces make it very difficult to do...convex pieces like the widshield and back window are easier to work on.
LOL..looking at the above pics with all the little specs in them..must be time for my annual camera lens cleaning!
BTW, I love it when good things happen by accident. I dug out the window frames/garnish rails last week   to do a check fit with the window channels and realized that the pointed chrome spear I had put on the door panel matches the embossed design in the garnish rail. Cool..couldn't have been better if I had planned it. Rich

[RICH MUISE]

One note on that polished striker plate....I'm not sure what the material is the main housing is made from. They don't rust, at least I've never seen a rusted one, it is a very tough material..like stainless, and it polishes out like stainless, and they are not plated. However, after about a year or so sitting on the shelf, it had tarnished quite a bit....much more than I think a stainless would have. 

[shopratwoody]

Looks good Rich,
What process and products did you use to buff out the paint?

[RICH MUISE]

#1 product was elbow grease. With the heat we've had this summer, and my lack of any envoiremental control, I've had a heck of a time getting the clearcoat on anywhere near smooth..almost to the point where it would be embarrasing for anyone to see it before blocking out. Even with slo dry reducer, it's just not flowing well like I've been able to get it in the past, so with that said, this is what I'm doing on the door I finally got painted yesterday:
With a small durablock, I'm going over it with 800 wet to knock down 90% of the orangepeel. Particularly on this step you want to use a small block and one with minimal flex.the block I use for the clearcoat is only about 3/4 x 1 1/2 x 6. If you try anything bigger than that, the suction caused by the water will make it hard to sand, and will also wrinkle your paper. The best papers I've found by the way are Norton black ice. Far superior to 3m. Carburendum also has been good. In fact I've been disapointed in all the 3m papers I've used.
Keep away from all edges and crests until the final sanding.
After the 800, I'll go over it with 1000 wet to remove 100% of the orangepeel. after you sand an area wipe it down with a wet rag, then dry it off with a dry towel. any remaining orangpeel will jump out at you. just keep going over it with the 1000 till all the shiney specs are gone. after that's done go over it once or twice with 1500 wet. Be thorough on this step, because you need to get off all the 1000 grit scratches. most of the 1500 scratches can be buffed, but just to make the buffing easier and quicker, I do the final wetsanding with 2000. After that you can go over your edges and other areas the hard block couldn't get to.
For tightly contoured ares, like around the windows,I prefer a flexible sanding block. "SOFT SANDERS" is a brand if you can find are great..you can use them wet or dry, have tons of diffeent contours in the 7 piece kit, are cheap, but do wear out.
By far the best buffing compound I've found is Maguire's Diamond cut. Next window for that....
August 22 correction...my initial sanding on the rough orangepeel was 600 wet, not 800..then on to the 1000

[RICH MUISE]

Maguire's Diamond cut...The shine you see in the photos is from start of buffing to finish with one product. It is not nearly as messy as others I've used, cleans off easily, and leaves no swirl marks. I bought a variable speed buffer at Harbor freight for 30$ I just love...you will need a variable speed...you can't get into tight areas with a single speed buffer without doing damage...you need to slow that puppy down. Throw away the pads and bonnets that come with the buffer..you can do damage with those as well...and buy a good quality wool buffing bonnet at your paint supply shop. I bought foam pads as well, tried them, but had better luck with the wool start to finish. I just did a final cleaning of the paint with maguire's ultimate detailer to remove any film and residue in the corners.
The Diamond cut..if you're doin' a whole car you will need a gallon. about 3 thorough buffs on each area will get it pretty well. Put a lot on, spread it around a little with a paper towel to keep the buffer from throwing it around the room,and keep buffing till it's gone. The stuff breaks down into smaller grits as it is being worked, to it ends up doing a final polish without the normal swirl maks....You can actually see this...If you look at the paint surface closly while your cleaning off the last of the compond, you will see a fine layer of the stuff still swiling around. Maybe more than you wanted to know..but you know me.  Rich
P.S. one last thing buff the clear as soon as you finish sanding and do all of it as soon as you can after painting...the longer the wait, the harder it is to sand and buff, but it still can be done. Also, the Diamond cut is paint shop friendly..no silicons to interfere with paint adhesion in case of needed touchups or getting on another project. The ultimate detailer I'm not sure if it is paint shop friendly or not..got to find out..I hope so, I love that stuff.

[RICH MUISE]

Some more stuff that's probably a lot more than you wanted to know...Two terms I've learned alot about in paintin..FLAT and SMOOTH...The flatness is determined by your final blocking prior to paint and isn't going to change after painting. With respect to autobody panels flat doesn't really mean flat..even the old volkswagon buses didn't have flat panels...it just means maintaining the body contour without any wavyness that wasn't neant to be there. Smooth is what is gained with the blocking after clearcoating. As I said, that final wetsanding isn't going to change the flatness, which is why you can do the final with smaller blocks...no longboards here!
The other thing I've learned, and the reason I was asking Bob if he knew if Santini was going to use a sealer under the basecoat: When you do your final blocking prior to paint, you get it flat and smooth..then you seal, basecoat, and clear. After you do your final wetsanding and buffing, you will probably still see the effect of orangepeel!!! Why? I believe it is because the sealer has orangepeel, and so does the basecoat. Even though you sand the clear smooth as silk, some of the light reflections are bouncing off the paint, rather than the clear giving the appearance of a little orangepeel. This is an effect I actually prefer because I think a paint that is too smooth or flat looks unatural. This effect is obviously more prominent in a metalic paint.
BTW: if you use a block that is too soft for your initial wetsanding, it will not pick up on little runs or imperfections in the clear as a durablock-type block will. Once you get that initial blocking done, you can go to a softer block if you prefer.

[Ford Blue blood]

Rich I use a 1/8" X 2" X 4" bar stock to do the final sanding prior to buffing.  The curved areas are with a similar sized firm rubber block and the really odd areas are by hand and buffed by hand.  The bar stock is cold rolled and buffed to a high gloss with the edges rounded off, the rubber is also smooth with rounded edges.  I assume you put a few drops of Dawn dish soap in your water bucket or the jug you fill the squirt bottle from.  Having just the small touch of soap really gives a clean cut by the paper and makes the buff stages much easier.  I have found the clear being two days old (out of the sun) then working it gives the best results (Dupont 7500), all the gassing is done, all the srinking is done and the paint isn't so hard that you need 40 grit to get the orange peel out of it.  I prefer the wool pad for the intial cut then foam pads for the follow on buffing.  I do prefer and use 3M products as that is what I grew up with.

[RICH MUISE]

I hadn't heard of the Dawn soap...I'll give it a try tommorrow

[RICH MUISE]

Bill...the Dawn dishsoap works great..helps the paper glide so it doesn't have a tendency to wrinkle up on you. Should save in paper costs as once that paper is wrinkled it should be discarded. Also Bill, I was wondering how you held on to that 1/8 metal block..do you have a handle attached?
Ron..The photos are of 4 of the 7 Soft Sanders I mentioned above..I think my wife ate the other 3...these work great around the tailight fins and windows. Also an overhead view of the crosspatern I block with on all surfaces. Note the block is always pointed along the access of the crown, but is moved at an angle to it, then the same in the opposite direction.I do this even on the radius areas around the windows.

[shopratwoody]

Around here the pros color sand with a DA