Tamiya compund, uh

I just bought it, came home. Since i dont have and couldnt find the 2000+ sand paper, i used wet 600 sand paper. Sanded a testing part a bit, took an old soft white shirt, put some compound on it, rub the wing.
First observations...: the paint went to the shirt right after 2-4 seconds of rubbing. Shirt left scratches on the paint, wing became worth than it was with orange peal.
God damn damn damn!!!
what did i do wrong?

You only used 600 grit sandpaper. That's what went wrong. Unless you rub for a really long time, you won't remove 600 grit scratches with Tamiya compound, which is probably like 8000 grit in terms of sandpaper, at least..

way to low of grit paper.. ... as said before, for comppound, you can't just Jump from 600 to compound.. you have to go from 1000-1500-2000 then compoudn... or something like that....... I used 1500 to compound and it was fine........

I seem dont have much luck with sand papers around here. Hobby shop, no 1500+ grit sand paper. Wal Mart, no, other stores, no...
Geez, do i have to ask someone around here to send me a peice of high grit sand paper? i dunno...

Try automotive supply shops, like Pep Boys, or R&S Strauss. Ask for their polishing section, and you should be able to find 2000 grit 3M sandpaper.

If not, you can order Micromesh online. Micromesh is better than regular sandpaper because it last longer and gives a smoother cut. Try www.micromark.com or www.micro-surface.com (beware the second store charges $10 shipping for something that could be sent in a frickin' envelope..)

Go to the laidies' nail cosmetic aisle in WalMart and look for sanding sticks that are like sanding cloths on foam. Find one that's like blue, pink, white and gray.

On mine:
blue: ~2,400 grit
pink: ~4,000 grit
white: ~6,000 grit
gray: ~12,000 grit

When you see 12,000 grit, you won't even believe it's got any texture at all...

Originally posted by Vyacheslav
the paint went to the shirt right after 2-4 seconds of rubbing.

Better than me.. after 5 minute of rubbing, noting moved...

Look like Tamiya compound is totaly crap.. I stick with Car Wax

Originally posted by Vric


Better than me.. after 5 minute of rubbing, noting moved...

Look like Tamiya compound is totaly crap.. I stick with Car Wax

It's not crap, you need to use it properly for it to have a good effect. How did you use it?

I haven't tried it but I think it works since Pman uses it. His R34 in the gallery says he sanded it with i guess a high grit and then compounded it.

Originally posted by daggerlee


It's not crap, you need to use it properly for it to have a good effect. How did you use it?

1200 Sand paper (dont have less and dont think it worth buying higher grade.. take a white sheet.. cost less and is the same :D )

anyway Sanded at 1200 for long (I had buble on the paint) I get rid of them, then I tryed the compound.. ok the refelction come back, but you can see scratch of the sand paper.....

A real compound should get out the scratch on a budy... dont seem to do anything for me

Pman used 2000 grit on his R34

Originally posted by Vric


1200 Sand paper (dont have less and dont think it worth buying higher grade.. take a white sheet.. cost less and is the same :D )

anyway Sanded at 1200 for long (I had buble on the paint) I get rid of them, then I tryed the compound.. ok the refelction come back, but you can see scratch of the sand paper.....

A real compound should get out the scratch on a budy... dont seem to do anything for me

Of course you'll see scratches, because you're not using a high enough grade sandpaper. :rolleyes:

It's worth buying it at a higher grade, because that's how Tamiya sandpaper works. It's fine if you don't want to buy the higher grade sandpaper but it DOES work for 2000+. If you get better results with automotive waxes, fine, but don't call it total crap :p

Check out this Aristo, sanded with 2000 grit 3M, then polished with Tamiya compound:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kaiyao1/aristo/finished3.jpg

I just use normal automotive compound.... works fine for me, You just have to not push to hard or it sands away the paint.

ok i used that nail thingy that jay offered. It sanded the peal off, fine, but when i polished it and got reflections etc, i can see small holes in paint. :confused:

Originally posted by Vyacheslav
ok i used that nail thingy that jay offered. It sanded the peal off, fine, but when i polished it and got reflections etc, i can see small holes in paint. :confused:

If you see holes you probably had some small bubbles in the paint which means you held the can a little to close. Tamiya's compound is a very good product. It works very well on their paints. It does not remove heavy orange peel. You need to get the sanding kit from Micromesh it starts at 1800 grit and goes to 12,000 grit. With most paint you start with 3200 or 4000 then 6000,8000,1200 then use polish. Some of the scratches are caused because the paint is not fully cured and needs more drying time. the 1800 grit and 2400 are good for sanding primers.

I always bake my cars in the sun for a couple of days so the paint is hard enough. the use 1200-2000 automotive paper to sand out, then i use flanelete pj's i stole of a mates son which had been worn down well
and kitten car polish and wax, with no probs paints used model master,tamiya and automotive

Originally posted by phase5
I always bake my cars in the sun for a couple of days so the paint is hard enough.

A good point. Have you left your paint long enough for it to harden properly? I've read varying suggestions as to how long you should leave it, from a couple of days to a whole month, but I think about a week is usually the norm. Unless you've got some way of 'baking' the paint such as in direct sun or even your airing cupboard.

If you don't leave it long enough the paint will still be a bit too soft and come off easily when you start using the compound.

Oh, and definitely use higher grade sandpaper ;)

I'll bake the car as soon as i'm finished spraying,and place in the sun for a couple of days,then i'll leave the car for around a couple of weeks up to a month. i just brought a polishing kit 3000-12000 grade have not used yet