new guy trying to lose bad habits set forth in body shops

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tech69

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Hi, my name is Henry and I work at a shop that does insurance work and high dollar restorations. I can do bodywork, paint, and cutt and rub so I'm all over the place at work. Lately I've been doing a lot of the buffing on the high dollar jobs and I'm trying to leave behind the old wool pads and keep it foam only. There's a lot to learn but mainly just need to be more efficient with time. It takes a long time to nib it with a hard block, then hard block with 1500, then soft pad manual block with 2000, 2500, then trizac 3000 then 5000. A lot of steps to satisfy the needs of foam pads only. Just trying to limit wasted times and brushin up on my skills without pissing off the boss to much about time.

here's a charger hood I cut and rubbed the other day.

 
Welcome to the party, Henry!
I too was born in raised in body shop and volume detail environments, so I'll wager that the experience in that arena added to the knowledge you'll gain here will likely make you one helluva good polisher.
Just remember the mantra: " Use the least aggressive product necessary to get the job done". That applies to machines, pads, chemicals and processes.

Bill
 
Body shop guy here too, not so much now But at times I go help my family.
(They are all body shop)

Actually wool pads are great IMO as Are foam pads and microfiber pads, etc...

They are all just tools in one's arsenal IMO and then it also comes down to skill, knowledge and experience IMO.

Either way, welcome!

Art
 
We wheel wool, pads and whatever Mike wants us to use in the garage.Welcome to AGO.:buffing:
 
:welcome: To Autogeek Online!!

Another former body shop guy here and my shop time was mostly in the 70's & 80's....

The 70's & 80's are when dinosaurs roamed the planet and the earth was still cooling. Back in those days we used ancient tools only recently discovered by archeologists.

Here's what they've uncovered...



I believe this a photo of the rare bufferosaurus!! It is said that machines such as this used sheep for buffing pads....although I may be mistaken..... :eek:




 
hahahaha. It will also make you "buff" buffing with that. :props:
 
^ I think that might be where he got some of his build lol

I just used the old Dewalts (heavier than the new ones)

Buff by Buffing lol
 
BobbyG you crack me up! I am imagining the amazement of the scientists when they uncover those things, brush it off and say "### is THAT"!

In any event, tech69 must certainly be reassured he's come to the right place with so many of you guys with similar backgrounds.

My question to all you guys is...can you cut down some by using more aggressive wool and a circular with an aggressive compound? Just thinking along the lines of tech69's original questions as it relates to refining by sanding to get to the use of a foam pad. I admit i don't have any body shop experience and am unfamiliar with paint prep before cutting and buffing.
 
Not sure what a circular is. (Rotary?) Just wondering

I prefer to use a wool pad to remove sanding scratches over foam pad on a rotary. Especially if I'm doing let's say the whole front end of a car. (Both fenders, hood and let's throw in the passengers side lol) Especially when your at a production body shop. They need it in and out as fast and as best as possible, because there's other cars that have to be done that day with deadlines.

The wool pad can cut just as fast and you can go more aggressive because it generates less heat then a foam pad does. (You can still burn the paint though)

However, I do prefer to polish with a foam pad, after the wool pad, I am still new to MF pads.

However if it were a show car and I had to worry about quality over quantity then I might still use my rotary to remove sanding but then would switch to a DA like the Flex or Rupes.

I did take my Rupes to my uncle's shop and the painter asked me if my machine was those Turtle Wax Wal-Mart machines. Lol

(Painter is not related to me lol)
 
hernandez.art13 said:
Not sure what a circular is. (Rotary?) Just wondering

I prefer to use a wool pad to remove sanding scratches over foam pad on a rotary. Especially if I'm doing let's say the whole front end of a car. (Both fenders, hood and let's throw in the passengers side lol) Especially when your at a production body shop. They need it in and out as fast and as best as possible, because there's other cars that have to be done that day with deadlines.

The wool pad can cut just as fast and you can go more aggressive because it generates less heat then a foam pad does. (You can still burn the paint though)

However, I do prefer to polish with a foam pad, after the wool pad, I am still new to MF pads.

However if it were a show car and I had to worry about quality over quantity then I might still use my rotary to remove sanding but then would switch to a DA like the Flex or Rupes.

I did take my Rupes to my uncle's shop and the painter asked me if my machine was those Turtle Wax Wal-Mart machines. Lol

(Painter is not related to me lol)
Click to expand...

so what kind of wool pad are you using? I feel a normal auto body paint jobber doesn't have all the choices I've seen here in the website store , but I'd love to pick some brains on that. Out here it's just a standard wool pad. braided or non braided real or synthetic. I've read somewhere that if you use the standard wool pads that most auto body jobbers carry you will never get the swirls out. I didn't believe it at first but am starting to believe it. I used to do wool then foam with compound but now it's only foam pad. When I dropped wool pads my sanding had to become better and more thorough in canceling out scratches. At first it was hard but now it's easy to deal with the scratches. My problem is the sanding and the time . I need to find faster ways but also need to hardblock it to keep the quality. It's tough with these showcars....more like a headache.
 
You can try DA sanding and just work clean (not saying your not) to help eliminate the pigtails.

You could also DA sand let's say with a 1000 then follow by hand sand with 1500 and finish with 3000.

Not sure which grit you use, but DA, hand sand and 3000 DA to speed you up some.

The first DA step will remove the orange peel, second any pigtails plus more orange peel and 3000 will just make the buffing step faster. From my experience.

We don't work on show cars just daily drivers that got in a collision.

We use everything 3M

3M wool pad
Black polishing pad and blue pad.

And compounds and polishes.

However, when I am detailing on my own work. I like the Meguiars line.

Menzerna is nice to but expensive.
 
BobbyG said:
:welcome: To Autogeek Online!! I believe this a photo of the rare bufferosaurus!! It is said that machines such as this used sheep for buffing pads....although I may be mistaken..... :eek:
Click to expand...

:iagree: And for fine finish work, we used a lamb.

Bill
 
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