polishing after clearcoating

hi guys i’m stuggling with getting my clearcoat to have that shining lustre i always see on most carbon fibre parts. maybe i’m doing something wrong when it comes to finishing/polising. I’m using presta ultra cutting cream but after using i seem to loose the shine i had prior to polishing. am i using the wrong product, any help will be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Wet and dry1500 paper,medium compound by hand or orbital polisher depending on size off part should come up,elbow grease.

hi thanks for the suggestion, i did wetsand with 2500 and buffed using a 3M pad with presta ultra cutting compound, i’m thinking maybe the issue lies with presta, maybe its too harsh. i’m getting frustrated with this :frowning: coz i have a carbonfibre road racing bike a the finishing on it is awesome and i just don’t know how i can get the same finishing on my overlayed part :(.

I do not know the product, but “ultra cutting” tells me that it might be a course compound. Get something finer, I suggest a fine polish and / or a “swirl remover”.

It is also possible that your paint is too fresh.

Presta is too harsh, we have it as well and use it to buff it 800 or a 1000 grit sanding marks. You’re basically scratching the surface with that stuff. Use a 3M finish line, not Presta.

hi SLS, thanks for the comment, quick question, after the clear has well dried should i wetsand with say 2500 or i should straight away buff with 3M finish line? lastly i have a bottle of 3M hand galze can i use it after the finish line?

Farecla G6 works great. It is automotive polishing compound. It`s kind of all in one and it works that way but most important is a very high gloss You get very fast. We use polishing machines but on some parts we have to do it by hand and i was surprised how easy - fast it goes with it.

We used 3M perfect-it, and Oscars polishing paste but this one is much better it in my opinion.

Hi Herman, thanks for your comments, i always make sure that the clear has fully dried, usually i leave the part out on the sun for a day or 2 @ max.

We do the following:

After clear:

1,500 wet,
2,000 wet,
3,000 wet,

3M finishing compound at max 1,500 rpm, sometimes even slower, maybe a swirl remover afterwards if necessary and then we buff with a micro fiber just by hand to remove any left over polish.

A lot of it depends on how good your clear coat application is, if you have a lot of orange peel or high/low spots you should re-block the item. We often find we must clear the composites 2 even 3 times depending on whether pin-holes were present.

In that case, we clear it and block it with 400 dry to make sure it is level and re-spray clear again.

I use:

1,000 grit wet
2,000 grit wet
3,000 grit 3M Trizac Pad on an orbital polisher wet
3M Perfect-It Compounding Cream on an orbital polisher
3M Perfect-It Polishing compound on an orbital polisher
Mequiar’s Swirl Remover 2.0 - orbital polisher

wow thanks alot, i’m not sure if the local paint shops sell > 2500 grit paper :slight_smile: anyway i will go hunting for it tomorrow as well as 3M perfect-it. At least now i know what i was doing wrong. i just re-blocked the part and cleared it 30min ago, i will post a pic shortly.

thanks wyowindworks :slight_smile: i really appreciated everyone’s comments.

attached is a shot showing the part after clear

That is not so bad. I would buff it up a bit with swirl remover, then on to the next job.

thanks, that’s my first overlay project and my 3rd attempt @ spraying clear :), i have a few overruns on the part and i’m not sure how i should handle them :frowning: without having to re-shoot clear again after blocking the overruns, any leads will be welcome :slight_smile:

It looks pretty good from the pic, if you have a few runs, take a stir stick (tongue depressor) and wrap it with 1,500 grit around the top of it, wet the area and press your finger on the top edge of the tongue depressor with the sand paper on it and with light pressure sand away the run.

You can lower the grit to a 1,000 but bear in mind it will show and need buffing as such, usually 1,500 will remove it if it is not a big run and then you can wet sand the rest of the piece out and buff away.

Good luck & post finish pieces.

Supply shops for car detailing sell sets which have all you need to attack runs.

thanks SLS. so after blocking the piece with 1500 and buffing say with perfect-it from 3M i should get the piece more shinier than before
(or as shown on the pics attached earlier)?

Remove the runs, make sure the clear is level by blocking wet as well, go through the grits from 1,500 to 3,000 and then buff with perfect it and yes you will have a shiny piece. Just remember, if you are using an orbital polisher that speed doesn’t help, slow and steady, you don’t want to high of an RPM.

Looking forward to seeing pics.

once again thanks for the positive comments, yesterday i went to my local paint shop supplier and i managed to get 3M Perfect-it :). i will definitely post the final pics.