To polish or not to polish, that is the question

[jayjacque]

Ok, I'm brand new. Still don't have my tooling, just some chemicals. Trying to sort out exactly what I need, and it's not going smooth yet. I'm hoping Brent's line will be reasonable and complete enough to be what I need. Anyway I notice Brent is recommending a dedicated polisher as well as a sander. I hear some of you don't feel that is necessary. So the question is do you polish? And if you do, why? If you don't, why not?

[ray6]

When you say polish, do you mean finer and finer grades of abrasive compound or using a polish which contains wax?

We have found that continuing sanding or using compounds finer than about 1000 grit have little effect depending on the UV/hardcoat you are using.

You mentioned Devlup, so I am assuming this is what you will be using.

I would try an experiment, either on a demo car or scrap headlight from a boneyard:

Sand down one side to 1000 grit or finer. Sand down/rub/polish the other side as you have been doing or think you will do. Coat with UV coat.

I've never used Dvelup's final coat, but from what I've heard, there will be very little differrence in the final results between the two sides. However, there is a big difference in the labor spent in repairing the lamp assembly. Your customer may or may not want to pay the difference in cost, but it's your call.

I would stay away from any product containing any wax (even mixing cups) because the wax will interfere with your final coat adhesion unless you remove all traces of the wax before coating.

The other thing to keep in mind, without high speed polishing (or even machine sanding) there will be less material slung reducing or eliminating masking.

Regards,

Ray

Ray