buffing/scratch removing techniques?

[willett]

hey guys.

i have a never truck (blue oval) and i have accumulated a few tree scratches over the last couple years from driving down narrow dirt roads.
most of them are pretty long, end to end or length of the box etc...
and i am hoping to try my hand at buffing them out.

we have a buffer here at home, but neither my dad or I have any experience with it.

what are some brands of rubbing compund that i should look for?

what sort of prep is necessary?

is there anything that i should be putting on after i buff?

is it right (or wrong) to spend some time and buff the whole truck? (the roof is pretty scratched up too)

thanks in advance,

Spencer

[72BlckButy]

I'm going to let piecesparts chime in on this as he has a lot of experience using electic buffers and compounds. I'm still in the days of elbow application.

[mbgmike]

Originally Posted by willett

hey guys.

i have a never truck (blue oval) and i have accumulated a few tree scratches over the last couple years from driving down narrow dirt roads.
most of them are pretty long, end to end or length of the box etc...
and i am hoping to try my hand at buffing them out.

we have a buffer here at home, but neither my dad or I have any experience with it.

what are some brands of rubbing compund that i should look for?

what sort of prep is necessary?

is there anything that i should be putting on after i buff?

is it right (or wrong) to spend some time and buff the whole truck? (the roof is pretty scratched up too)

thanks in advance,

Spencer

What year vehicle you buffing? what type of finish. If its BC/CC you buff it with clearcoat polish, its not a rubbing compound. If the scratches are threw the clear you will still see them
To buff it wash the vehicle to get any crud off it. I use a waffle type pad and then the cloth to finish. Just stay off the edges and go over the top clock wise where the rotation is off the fender not into the fender etc. I use a variable spped buffer. Are you sure you have a buffer and not one of these polishers they sell at autozone?? they are useless to buff with. Buffers can hurt you to if not careful. Stay away from antennas etc and windshield wipers (or remove them) until you get used to them. One of our idiots knocked himself off a milkcrate using one on a hood You don't have to do the whole truck at once. try it and you can stop any time you want.
Don't try to get the all out if they are deep as CC is thin.

But what is the paint first????

[willett]

hey thanks for the info,

the truck in question is a 2003 f-150.

i was looking at buffers, and i think that the thing i have here is actually a polisher.
all of the buffers that i have looked at on the intraweb kinda look like angle grinders. the one that i have here has 2 handles and looks a bit like a steering wheel with a buffing wheel on the bottom.

cheers,

spencer

[piecesparts]

I have found that the angle buffers that are on the market work quite well, but you want one that will rotate slow (the slow the RPMs the better). I have a couple of different ones, that I use. One is a Makita brand and the other is a Porter-Cable model. The Porter has a slow speed capability than the Makita, so I use it to finish work with.

I have polished out a few different kinds of paint and the base coat, clear coat is the easiest. I use 3-M's polishing compounds. The one that I use the ost is "Finnessee-It" but the newer poishes in th e"Perfect-It" line works great too. I stay with the "Finnessee-It" due to the fact that it allows you time to work with the material, where the "Perfect-it" material will harden and is hard to get off the finish at the end of the process. I also use a 3-M 9" wool pad to get the polishing started, then I follow up with the second buffer using a 9" foam waffle style pad with a paint detail spray to get rid of swirl marks. You will need to purchase the 3-M adapter to allow maountin the pads onto a buffer. It is a small aluminum block with a threaded center and a set screw on one end for the pads to thread onto.

Everyone has a different style of protectant touse after they are done, but you wnat something on that paint, after you have removed some of the finish topcoat. Iuse products from the Wizards company and those product work great with my black colors. www.wizardsproducts.com (Shinemasteer and Mist -N-Shine) I apply the sealant with an orbital polisher, but it can be done by hand. The polisher allows me a complete polish in less than an hour on a full size truck.

The scratches can be removed, if they are NOT to deep. You can even use a little bit of a Wet-N-Dry sand paper to start the process. I would not use a paper that is more course than a 2500 grit, though. Be sure to keep it wet and do not stay in one area too long.

[treveiger]

My dad just sold his 04 GMC truck that was a charcoal color, we had scratches left and right in it from all the years of using it as a work truck and we wanted to buff it(first time ever doing it)before we put it up for sale so i grabbed our single speed grinder and put a buff pad on it and used 3M fine scratch buffing compound and did little sections at a time and the scratches that werent through the clear coat came out and put some polish and wax on it and the truck looks great! I really didnt want to sell it after that. That was my first time doing it and now im not afraid to burn the paint if i can do it anybody can.

[piecesparts]

Originally Posted by treveiger

My dad just sold his 04 GMC truck that was a charcoal color, we had scratches left and right in it from all the years of using it as a work truck and we wanted to buff it(first time ever doing it)before we put it up for sale so i grabbed our single speed grinder and put a buff pad on it and used 3M fine scratch buffing compound and did little sections at a time and the scratches that werent through the clear coat came out and put some polish and wax on it and the truck looks great! I really didnt want to sell it after that. That was my first time doing it and now im not afraid to burn the paint if i can do it anybody can.

You got lucky using a grinder. Those tools get to speeds that is too fast for proper buffing of paint. If you chose to go forward from here, I would recommend a quality buffer and a large pad to ensure that you do not buff through the paint in your future efforts.

[treveiger]

Originally Posted by piecesparts

You got lucky using a grinder. Those tools get to speeds that is too fast for proper buffing of paint. If you chose to go forward from here, I would recommend a quality buffer and a large pad to ensure that you do not buff through the paint in your future efforts.

O ya i know, i am going to get a real buffer when i do my truck, i cleaned the whole truck and the scratches made it look horrible so my father told me to do it and i kept warning him it was a bad idea but he kept telling me to man up and do it so i jumped on it and said o well its not my truck. What size pad would you recomend?

[piecesparts]

Originally Posted by treveiger

O ya i know, i am going to get a real buffer when i do my truck, i cleaned the whole truck and the scratches made it look horrible so my father told me to do it and i kept warning him it was a bad idea but he kept telling me to man up and do it so i jumped on it and said o well its not my truck. What size pad would you recomend?

There are a lot of buffing items out there. I have set myself up to use the 3M Superbuff pads for taking scratches out. I still use the 3M finnessee-It polishing compound, but there are others that work as well. The pads that I use are 9" in diameter and they are set up to mount onto the buffer with an quick-spin adapter. I follow up my polishing with a 9" foam pad using a detail spray to clean the paint of the polishing compound.

I put sealer onto my paint with a smaller Porter Cable orbital polisher that I purchased from Mequiars and it makes doing a full sized truck very short business.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...gl50ND38QMVHbl

http://classic-motoring.stores.yahoo...rcabpolac.html

[Zeke]

I have not buffed a car but there are lots of "how to" out there and from what I have learned here, read and watched basic things are watch your speed, keep pad flat etc. As far a compound I think it's a personal preference and everyone uses what works best for them lots of good advice on this board but you have to just do it to find what works best for you. With 7 coats of rustoleum I don't think you will have a problem with burn through.
this link might help you out and there are lots more out there.

YouTube - How To Wet Sand and Buff: 1967...