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Old 04-02-2008, 06:57 AM
mpierich mpierich is offline
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Default Re: help for a new polishing addict

Quote:
Originally Posted by 89notchback View Post
you can see some scratches here...
some stuff I have sanded and re sanded so much the metal is thin now.... Im using a hand drill and 4 and 6' buffs and im sanding from 80-400 and the hitting the 3 black brown and whit compounds...but I CAN NOT GET THE MIRROR SHINE.... Im wanting to polish everything on my mustang that is aluminum evan my vortech but not till I get this figured out
one is a vintalated flap and the other is spirel sewn
Baz is right on.

It's probably simply a matter of not spending enough time on each step. Sanding and polishing is easy...knowing when to stop is not. You really need to use bright lighting at different angles to _see_ if you're getting the previous scratches out. Looking and seeing are two different things.

Are you using different wheels for the different compounds? Raking the wheels during polishing? Cleaning the metal between steps?

One possible problem is the 80 grit. When I started out I used 80 for the initial smoothing because it was fast. I soon discovered that it took far longer to get out the 80-grit scratches than the time it saved me. Now I never go lower than 120 to start - sometimes 220 if possible.

Also try skipping the tripoli. Sometimes it seems to me to be unhelpful, although some people swear by it.
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