Waiting time before polishing?

[tigeraid]

So I've read the FAQ and the Tutorials, and seen it in a buncha magazines and books too, and everyone has a different answer. I've always wondered why my paint jobs still seem to have a fair bit of orange peel and dullness even after polishing--I was waiting maybe 3 days before polishing, which is apparently too short. I've had the GTO sitting by the radiator for almost a week now, how long should I keep waiting?

Also, when you guys polish, do you go through a polishing kit with various sanding pads--sand with the roughest pad, then polish, then sand again with the next finer, then polish, then the next finer, then polish, etc? Or do you just polish once? Again, I've seen both in tutorials.

Oh and do you rub the polish in, then leave it for a few minutes to dry, then just dust it off, or do you rub it out?

[SteveK2003]

What kind of paint is it? Lacquers can be polished after a few days, acrylics after about a week, and enamels can take several weeks to a month. The longer you wait, the better.

[tigeraid]

Originally Posted by SteveK2003

What kind of paint is it? Lacquers can be polished after a few days, acrylics after about a week, and enamels can take several weeks to a month. The longer you wait, the better.

Ah, I see. Well I either use Duplicolour or Tamiya paints... what are they?

[MidMazar]

Usually laquers take about a week, and then you're safe for polishing. Acrylics take the same amount of time. Enamals usually take the most amount of time (2-3 weeks). I never got the swing of enamals, with about 5-7 days and i start polishing sometimes 4 days with no problems. With the polishing, that depends on how bad the orange peel is. If u do a good job painting with minimal orange peel a good polishing with compound roughly twice around the car should give you a decent shine. If its really bad with op then sanding will really help, starting from 1000 or 1200 and working your way up, following by polishing. I usually use tamiya and 3m compound, they're awesome. I've seen what scratch x can do on these boards and i think ill pick me up a bottle. Remember it all depends on how you want to do it. Experiment with some old car bodies and different compounds.

[MidMazar]

Originally Posted by tigeraid

Ah, I see. Well I either use Duplicolour or Tamiya paints... what are they?

4-7 days and ur good to go with polishing, they are laquers.

Oh and remember that metallics need a clear coat before polishing or no shine will be achieved.

[tigeraid]

Alright cool, I think I just need to improve HOW I polish then. So you don't do sanding pad, polish, sanding pad, polish, sanding pad, polish? One tutorial mentioned that, which sounded odd to me. I had previously been doing sanding pads one after the other, progressively finer, and THEN the polish... Do you let the polish dry before the final rub or do you rub it right out?

[MidMazar]

Originally Posted by tigeraid

Alright cool, I think I just need to improve HOW I polish then. So you don't do sanding pad, polish, sanding pad, polish, sanding pad, polish? One tutorial mentioned that, which sounded odd to me. I had previously been doing sanding pads one after the other, progressively finer, and THEN the polish... Do you let the polish dry before the final rub or do you rub it right out?

I sand down the body once in a while, either using the sanding pads or sand paper, always with water. Seems like your procedure is right, and don't let it dry, just rub it out. One suggestion when u sand the car have it under running water so that all the paint particles u sand away dont stay on the body but go down the sink.

[tigeraid]

Cool. We'll see how the GTO turns out.

[pre98zetec]

I've polished duplicolor the next day and it was fine.