gloss after wet sanding..

[theodoropoulos]

I wet sanded my guitar today with 1500 and 2000 sandpapers only.The shinny surface disappeared.After the buffing procedure by hand with polishing compounds it appeared again.BUT I THINK IT IS NOT SO SHINNY AS BEFORE WET SANDING.Can it be possible?i used medium and final polishing compound and buffed L O N G T I M E.....

[camsna]

That sounds right, I think. The finish will more shiny before wet sanding, but not level. Wet sanding makes the surface of the paint level and flat. Then, medium buffing compound brings back some of the gloss, finer compound - more shine. But if you're hand-polishing the guitar (not with a buffing wheel, that is), it will never be glass-shiny.

[theodoropoulos]

i think most of us have not this buffing wheel and for me its very expensive to buy it from STEW MAC because of the taxes..the sun won't shine again.....

[tnvnl]

You can bring it back by hand, but it will be a time consuming project.

[theodoropoulos]

a stupid question....if by spraying a manage a very good surface without problems ,can i stop there and not wet sand/ polish with medium compounds,just wax it?

By the way,can i find in Europe a dealer for buffing arbor?

[tnvnl]

Originally Posted by theodoropoulos

a stupid question....if by spraying a manage a very good surface without problems ,can i stop there and not wet sand/ polish with medium compounds,just wax it?

By the way,can i find in Europe a dealer for buffing arbor?

Your never going to shoot a coat that will be as smooth as a hand wet sanded finish, if you dont have a regular buffer, it will simply take lots of hand rubbing to achieve the finish. If you can get your hands on an automotive buffer, that will work also.

[bfcg]

If you want that glassy wet shine, you must level and sand progressively.
The increments are dependant on you level of expertise. Some guys can go from 1200 to the buffer.
You do not have to have a buffing wheel to achieve a high gloss finish but it sure does help.
Time consuming? Of course it is, what does one expect? If you are going for a high gloss finish, you have to learn to recognise the sanding marks from one grit to the next so that you are sure to remove all of the marks from the previous grit before advancing to the next. No wheel high gloss will require that you go all the way up to 18000 before rubbing out with a superfine polish on a piece of flannel.
If you use cheese cloth you will be dulling the finish. At that level cheesecloth is abrasive.

[DRF]

You can use a drill with Meguires pads(diff grades) and your compounds. Some of the medium compounds I've seen are too gritty and I just use fine then final grade. Actually I now just use 3M one stage compound and 2 pads and its good enough.

YouTube - How to Repair Car Paint Damage : White Pad Buffing a Car's Paint Job

YouTube - How to Repair Car Paint Damage : White Pad Buffing a Car's Paint Job

[bfcg]

Micro-Mesh Finishing Abrasives Kit at Stewart-MacDonald
Follow this with some Meguires and you will be good to go.

[Paragon]

In order to get the most of wetsanding, you have to sand enough to get the lines out from the previous grit. Trick I learned while polishing brass blocks for acid etching (in order to view the grain under the microscope) of course this is easier to do on a flat surface..
Sand in one direction with the first grit. Once everything is flat enough, go to the next grit but sand perpendicular to the last drection. Eventually the previous grit lines will go away so you go to the next grit and so on.
If you change to a finer grit too fast, you will be trying to polish away lines from all the previous grits which means you will not be able to get as high a shine without your arm falling off.

[theodoropoulos]

i understand that before going to the next grit, the previous must be perfect but all those perfect stages are dull....the shinny surface is better to be achieved mechanically as i see...
anyway thank you all for your responce...

[H.E.L.Shane]

wait... is thi guitar nitro or poly... i remember you posted something about painting a guitar in poly this time..


If you painted it with poly.. you will definately need to use a machine to get it high gloss again.

A high speed hand drill with a buffing wheel on it will work

[theodoropoulos]

yes,i used poly for final coat...,
i am finally getting a pretty-well gloss not 100% but i cannot avoid the swirls but hand polishing...there are many of them not very noticable but they exist...in circular shapes...i will buy a speed hand drill on Monday to put them away ....

[The Laserist]

Originally Posted by camsna

That sounds right, I think. The finish will more shiny before wet sanding, but not level. Wet sanding makes the surface of the paint level and flat. Then, medium buffing compound brings back some of the gloss, finer compound - more shine. But if you're hand-polishing the guitar (not with a buffing wheel, that is), it will never be glass-shiny.

Just wanted to chime in since I'm right at this stage in my first LP build.
I haveseveral coats of dark red/mahogany paint and have sanded it down and reshot it and sanded it some more. Now it is pretty flat and level and of course it is a dull matte finish. I'm up to 1000 gr sandapaper and am just starting to get a little sheen off of it at a sharp angle with bright light.
Evidently I need to continue on with finer and finer grade sand paper, I have 1500 and 2000. My question is will that be enough or should I plan on going further with the sanding? I've seen some comments referring to 2500+ sandpaper. I also plan to get the polishing/buffing attachments for my hand drill, now would I use all this on the paint, get it shiny smooth and THEN, hit with the clear coat and then do the graduated sanding polishing process.
I'm just not sure how far to go with the sandpaper and how much shine I can expect. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Metamatic]

When buffering the idea is to heat the lacquer so the scratches melt. You don't get that result by hand. You could possible do it by hand on small parts like the side of the peghead if you rub like h*ll, but not on large parts. It doesn't matter what kind of lacquer it is but it's quite easier to do it on Nitro-cellulose.

[pawpaw]

It may be too late to reply, but I just joined recently and remembered reading this before I joined. I just got some of the really fine sandpaper sheets from Stewart MacDonald - I got a sheet of 4000 grit, one of 6000 grit, and one of 8000 grit. They are only $2.00 a sheet in the U.S., don't know how much for overseas, but after I had wet sanded with 2000 grit automotive paper I went through these and they helped a lot. I wet sanded with 4000, then dry sanded with 6000 and 8000. I think I am ready to buff now.

[crushmorgan]

Hey man just buy a buffing wheel for your drill and that will work just as good as any arbor you find