Paint Cut And Polish Guide - Smooth As Glass

While the surface is wet, it's difficult to see if the surface has been sufficiently sanded. Brian uses a squeegee to give the surface a quick wipe dry to check the progress. The goal of the sanding process is a flat surface with no visible gloss. He will generally take the surface to 80-90 percent flat with the power sander.

Brian finishes the sanding process by hand, using a flexible foam and rubber hand backing pad. Again, this is a wet-sanding, so the water bottle is used while sanding. Brian will take the surface of the paint the rest of the way to 100 percent flat with no shiny spots by hand.

Here's the finished result, as illustrated by the center portion of the '62's nose. Note that the paint is sanded perfectly smooth, with no sheen visible. Any shiny spots would be flaws requiring more sanding. When the paint is as nicely applied as that of this Corvette, it really does not take much sanding to get there.

Next, we move on to the buffer, which will take the flattened paint to a mirror-like shine. Paint buffers look like a sander or grinder, but turn much lower rpm, generally between 1800-2600, depending upon the specific machine. Here a wool "cutting" pad has been fitted for the first step. The pad is cleaned by "spurring" while it's spinning.

Buffing is usually done in two steps, a coarser "cutting" step, followed by the fine polishing or "glazing." For the first step, Brian used 3M Rubbing Compound, No. 05974. Brian prefers to apply the compound with a brush, pre-spreading it over the area to minimize compound flinging mess with the buffer.

With a few passes at light pressure, the finely-sanded surface quickly regains its shine. The trick is to keep the buffer moving in a back and forth pattern until the compound is buffed off.

For the polishing step, the wool cutting pad is replaced on the buffer for a fine-polishing foam pad. The technique for the polishing step is similar to that of the cutting step.

After compounding, the surface shows a good shine, but there is more to go. The finish polish or glaze will remove any buffer swirl marks and bring up a brilliant luster. Brian again uses 3M brand polish, No. 06068.

It's important to be aware of the buffer rotation, and to avoid running the pad into an edge where it can catch and burn the paint. The correct technique is to always have the pad spin off the edge when working these areas.

There's nothing more satisfying than a freshly painted and polished Corvette, ready for assembly. This car will be a showpiece when completed, and the outstanding paintwork will separate it from the crowd.