I'm painting a car with Spies-Hecker single stage urethane. The paint turns out pretty good but we are trying to make it very nice.......so my painter friends tell me to D/A with 1500 wet then 3000 wet....then buff.

Well......I do the D/A to 3000.....the paint looks nice and smooth.....then I buff and all you can see is scratches.....they are circular so I'm assuming they are 1500.

We've even started with 2500 a couple days after paint and it looks like hell when we buff......big straight scratches.

The guy doing the body work is a pro with 15 years experience.....the Standox primer surfacer was blocked with 800 before paint......

I know it's hard to help but I need some suggestions....

Thanks,
Aaron

sounds like you havent buffed the scratches out yet, keep buffing

later

Did you use a compound? Also what polish & Compound if any are you using?? I have found that 3m & Presta's stuff works well. Also are you using foam or wool for the polishing (not compounding)..? Jamie / Lakeside

We painted my 30' Sutphen with Spies- Hecker, I used 3M Buffing & Polishing Compound. After your done buffing ,I used 3M Liquid Ebony. No swirl marks,Just Shine!

It sounds like you are using to agressive of a compound or pad.
3M perfect it compound with a foam pad wors well and follow with 3M Ultafina with the blue foam pad.

Thats what I was thinking he may be doing as well. Also possibly there was no compunding before polishing after the sanding was done, or maybe not enough?? Jamie /lakeside

Thanks guys.....we're using foam pads and various 3M compounds but I can't remember what.

I'll check when I get to the shop tomorrow.

Could the mixing ratio have an effect on how hard the paint is?

The data sheet says 3:1 of the hardner we have so that's what we did.

The paint can says 2:1 of some other hardner......?

Thanks again,
Aaron

It can depending on what you ended up with However if it ended up too hard, you should stil be able to wet sand, compound & polish it out. Depending on how it was mixed it could have also cured to soft. If that was the case your sanding & polishing pads & finish would be gumming up.. Just a thought.. J

Make sure that you are using the correct pad with the correct pollish. I had my landloard barrow stuff from us and he came back all pissed that the stuff that he was doing was not as nice as what we did. He had reversed the pads and chemicals.....