Making Things Shiny

I spent today color sanding with my buddy Ray.  It's my birthday present to me.

We had to do some touchups to the driver's side fender and the stripe on the back deck.  After that, it was color sanding fun.

For those that aren't familar--color sanding doesn't actually sand the color (the base coat).  It sands down the clear coat to make it super smooth, then polishes it to get a high gloss.  It brings out the color.

So I went from something like this...

To this...

To this.

That took the following:

• Sand the panel with 1500 grit, wet sanding by hand to get rid of all the orange peel.
• Sand the panel with 2000 grit, wet sanding by hand.
• Sand with 2500 grit, wet, by hand.
• Sand with 3000 grit, wet, with a dual action sander and Trizact pad.
• Sand with 5000 grit, wet, with a dual action sander and Trizact pad.
• Cut with Meguiar's 105 cutting compound, by hand.
• Buff with Meguiar's 205 polishing compound, with a buffer and foam pad.

It's not even waxed yet, and I could shave in the reflection.  There are some fine scratches that more buffing and waxing will eliminate.  I am over the moon.

Ray and I did the two doors, then I did the boot and the bonnet.  The bonnet took seemingly forever; it's rather large (the largest panel) and had more orange peel than I expected.

But things look pretty nice!

 

 

It's hard work, but worth the result.

Now, I have to finish the wings (fenders, you Yanks!) and the body.  That's another full weekend of work.  Then, I can really start assembly.  (I had to disassemble the front end--I have a bent damper arm and a leaky damper, too.  They're getting swapped.)

Stay tuned!  The fun really gets started in our next episode.