Tip: Cutting and Buffing Paint

[Kyle Boatright]

Originally Posted by wirejock

I'm going to cut and buff some small parts. Canopy skirt and windshield trim.
The electric buffer and pads are long term use items but the Trizac disks are really expensive.
For small area, does anyone know if I can just hand wet sand with 1500, 2K and 3K?

Sure you can. Just be careful over the fasteners.

[MrNomad]

I've done a lot of car painting followed by buffing both basecoat/clear and single stage. I strongly suggest you practice on something you don't care about even if you have to paint some scrap with the same paint materials as the plane.

Buffing wheels are great but they can rip thru paint really quickly. Most often, novices damage the edge (by going the wrong direction) which then requires you to learn how to blend. Take a look at 3M products when u r done with wet & dry paper.

Lots of water, always use a block, experiment a lot (use your teenager's car) before hitting the plane.

Here are my notes on 2015 VW I recently did. Enjoy!

Color sanding procedure as of Mar 2019 ? 2015 VW

First cut ? Use 2000 grit paper with lots of water and flat block. Make sure nibs do not cut into clear. Never use your fingers and sand paper. At the very least, use a flexible block else your fingers will press into the paper and cut unevenly. Do not use 1500 paper. Work in the sunlight to speed the process. The more material you cut off in this phase, the less time you will spend in Second cut.

Second cut ? Let the surface cool off & dry after being in the sun. Use the white foam pad with big nubs on it, lowest speed on the buffer, and the 3M white compounding liquid. Work indoors else the liquid will stain. Work on small sections, perhaps 6? x 12? or less. Study each section for clouds before moving onto next section.

Third cut ? 3M FINESSE II and white foam pad with ridges - work indoors else liquid can stain.

Fourth cut ? 3M PERFECT IT (blue and white bottle) and white solid foam pad.

Perhaps the most important component is to make sure the towels, applicator, buffing pad and anything else do not have any grit embedded lest it will scratch the clear and u will never get rid of it.

[wirejock]

Thanks. Yes, I always practice on test parts. Problem is no matter how much I practice, Murphy still shows up unannounced.

[Aluminum]

Originally Posted by wirejock

I'm going to cut and buff some small parts. Canopy skirt and windshield trim.
The electric buffer and pads are long term use items but the Trizac disks are really expensive.
For small area, does anyone know if I can just hand wet sand with 1500, 2K and 3K?

As long as you don't use Harbor Freight abrasives.

3M stuff works really fast and doesn't shed grit like cheap paper.

There are some specialty discs for car work that have some sort of lubricant on the grit. Those leave a great finish but don't last long.

This may not work for every kind of paint, but for siloxane epoxies I find that grits higher than 1000 are a waste of time. Meguiar's cutting compound makes a shine without clouding in a few seconds after 1000-grit finish.

[wirejock]

Originally Posted by Aluminum

As long as you don't use Harbor Freight abrasives.

3M stuff works really fast and doesn't shed grit like cheap paper.

There are some specialty discs for car work that have some sort of lubricant on the grit. Those leave a great finish but don't last long.

This may not work for every kind of paint, but for siloxane epoxies I find that grits higher than 1000 are a waste of time. Meguiar's cutting compound makes a shine without clouding in a few seconds after 1000-grit finish.

Yep. I learned some HF stuff isn't worth the cost savings. I use 3M paper.
Going with Meguires 105 and 205 for final compound and polish using 3M pads.

[DanH]

Photos re-posted...again!

[wirejock]

Cut & Buff
I don't want to steal any thunder from Dan. He is the expert and probably forgot more yesterday than I'll learn in a lifetime, but this is how I did it. I post details on everything to my blog and will post photos to my blog soon.

I starrted with 3M 1000, 1,500 and 2,000 wet sand. I did have to use more agressive grits for some pretty ugly spots. Pretty straight forward. Wet sand a little, dry, examine. When the orange peel is down to just a few glitterlike reflections, move on to the next grade. By 2,000, they were all gone and the surface just a matt finish.

I decided to play around with the compound and polish this afternoon. I compounded a tiny section then polished it and was so blown away, I just had to finish the canopy skirt. Maybe 20 minutes total.* I actually got a little emotional seeing the finished product. All I can say is Holy Cow! I could easily shave in the reflection.* So here's the destructions.*

1. I bought a rotary Dewalt Buffer, but for small jobs like this, it's totally unecessary. It may actually be a hindrance. This is so easy and takes just a little elbow grease.*

2. I chose Meguires 105 Compound and 205 Polish. Turns out a gallon is probably a good quantity for an airplane. I'll be buying more 105 eventually.*

3. Cut up some old cotton rags. 1' squares are good for applicators. Save the big pieces for buffing.*

4. Shake the products well.*

5. Apply a teaspoon size dollop of 105 to a patch.* Rub it on a section maybe 2? feet till it starts to dry like a wax haze.

6. Buff with a dry patch.*

7. Repeat with 205.

Yep. That easy.* It's perfectly flat, no orange peel or pinholes and shiny like a mirror.

[JFCRV12]

Hello all,

I'm considering purchasing an already flying (and painted) RV-12. It was part of a teen flight build in Nor Cal. Related, the paint job was donated by Kracon Aircraft Painting. Net, given a pro paint shop did it, the paint job should be fantastic right? Well, the answer is mostly.

Somehow, while the whole plane looks amazing, there are REALLY unsightly drips under each wing. I have no idea how it passed QA. While the paint job was donated, Kracon did stick there logo on the tail cone under the data plate. Given the the size of this drip area, if I were the owner of the paint shop, I'm not sure I'd put my name on it. Anyway, the rest of the plane and paint are literally perfect. So, I want it. But I wanted to get some feedback on how to repair this section. Is it too big for the razor blade method on the 1st page of this thread (run over 400grit, convex, scrape a little, buff a lot)?

Here's a pic of the area (assume it's about the same under the other wing).

Thanks!

[Mel]

Originally Posted by JFCRV12

Hello all,
I'm considering purchasing an already flying (and painted) RV-12. It was part of a teen flight build in Nor Cal. Related, the paint job was donated by Kracon Aircraft Painting. Net, given a pro paint shop did it, the paint job should be fantastic right? Well, the answer is mostly.
Somehow, while the whole plane looks amazing, there are REALLY unsightly drips under each wing. I have no idea how it passed QA. While the paint job was donated, Kracon did stick there logo on the tail cone under the data plate. Given the the size of this drip area, if I were the owner of the paint shop, I'm not sure I'd put my name on it. Anyway, the rest of the plane and paint are literally perfect. So, I want it. But I wanted to get some feedback on how to repair this section. Is it too big for the razor blade method on the 1st page of this thread (run over 400grit, convex, scrape a little, buff a lot)?
Here's a pic of the area (assume it's about the same under the other wing).
Thanks!

Have you considered talking to Kracon about it? I would think since their name is on it that they would want to fix it themselves.

[JFCRV12]

I did send them an email last night. Going to call later today once they?re open. Not sure how helpful they?ll be since it?s been painted and flying like that for about 9-10months