I just finished a gloss coat on a classic longboard. After that I went 220, 400, 600 wet and then buffed with a plastic polish. I still haven’t gotten a good shine. Do I just need to do the same thing only more so? I worried that my arm will drop off. Thanks for any advice!
P.S. right now my only options are my arm or a random orbital sander with a fuzzy buffing pad.
Hi Ceroshaper,
You could do with rubbing out those scratches from the 600 with a compound.
I use Farecla G6 compound and a G-mop which works great, plenty of water with G6 is the key…Another good compound is Surlustre, available through your supplier. I also like to go up to 800 or sometimes 1000 (unnecessary) then the compound will knock ALL the scratches out which will give your board a deeper gloss.
Compound is the key! otherwise you’ll be at it for hours and no result!
Good luck…show us a pic when you have finished!!!
TM
Cero…,
Mason has it right. Compound with lots of water. The water speeds the “cutting” of the compound, but equally important, reduces or eliminates heat buildup, and possible burning of the surface.
Working your way down into finer grit sand paper is good as long as you do not sand through.
I do not know what Plastic polish is.
I did classic cars for years so my experience comes from buffing cars not surfboards.
Resin is much harder to buff than paint but also harder to buff through. The idea is to remove the scratches so if you sand finer there’s less scratches. 600 grit can easily be buffed with a machine , I go to 1200 but that’s how I buffed cars. There’s some good stuff in the resourses on how to mix and apply gloss resin. I’m quite surprised how much catalyst is needed to make the gloss resin kick. Your local Auto Body Supply shop will have what you need.
If you are buffing by hand break it down into small sections. Do two feet today and two feet tomorrow.
Ray
How about the price of elbow grease?!? Ouch! Aloha…RH
Another way to help that gloss finish is to get the Gloss to lay flat a possible to start with…Try adding a little styrene and S.A. to you gloss resin. And if you are thinking of making more boards in th future…invest in a sander/polisher with variable speed control. Not to expensive and will help you get the finish and save time.
As Stingray said…take care when sanding up to 1200 from heating up the board and getting sand throughs or yellowing. TM
…use kerosene instead of water…better
Alright so last night I wet sanded the gloss coat out to 800 grit (320,400,600,800). When the board was wet it had beautiful shinny blood red finish to it, but when it is dry the shine is gone. So will rubbing compound bring the shining wet look (fresh blood) look back?
what to use? will any mild rubbing compound from the auto parts store work?
should it be marine (fiber glass) polish/compound?
should I also use a polish after the compound? future floor was? or auto paint polish?
what about application?
Got 2 options:
variable speed sander/polisher or
orbital polisher.
Will speed give better results or just faster results?
(i.e. I left it on low during all of my sanding, even the 800)
Hi 4est,
What i’d do now to get that shine is compound…If you can got up to 1000 that helps too. But you really must compound to rub out all the scratches left making you board look dull. Try “Farecla G6” if you can get it over there. You use a G-mop (also made by Farecla) on your sander/polisher for the best results and use plenty of water as mentioned before. Once you have given the boards a couple of good passes with the compound it will shine just the way you want. Then you can polish with a lambs wool buffer to get that showroom shine. If Farecla is a problem to get hold of try to find Surlustre, another great product.
Tm
Howzit 4est, Go to Fiberglass Hi. in Santa Barbara and get some shurlustre for rubbing out, it’s what most shops use and it works great. Aloha,Kokua
Howzit 4est, Go to Fiberglass Hi. in Santa Barbara and get some shurlustre for rubbing out, it's what most shops use and it works great. Aloha,Kokua
Don’t have time to get shurlustre for today, but did call Fiberglass Hawaii and got some advice from them. Shurluster is a #2 compound and then they suggested coming back with a touch of #7 compound. Adviced doing both with a wool bonnet, but different bonnets for each.
…man dont spend your money in those orbital polishers…theyre crap…
…the best for your polishing is a variable polisher cause you need differents velocities…
Don’t go to the auto parts store.
Go to the Auto Body Supply Store. That’s where all the car painters go. Look in the yellow pages.
You need a medium compound and a buffing pad (bonnet). That’s all.
That power sander that you used to sand the hot coat is a buffer so don’t buy another tool. Just put the buffing pad on it. Be careful not to catch a edge and throw the board across the room. Just like sanding…only now you are buffing. Lots of different brands and lots of different types of compounds and polishes.
have fun
Ray
We use to use just compound (3m) heavy duty but would occasionally still have little swirls. Now we finish with Tri-cut compound with a fresh wool bonet and the glosses come out with a mirror shine. No more swirlys.
Usa a big soft foam pad, not the wool bonnet. Wool bonets pick up and hold dirt and they get all clogged and mashed down with polish pretty quick. Foam is more multidirectional on the polisher, and you can push down way harder with it… Use the wool bonet for a dry buff out, or a car wax, gee-i-can’t-get-wax-to-stick-on-my-board -it-is-too-shiney-finish
Howzit resinhead, I have a tool that looks like a cowboys spur that remove any build up on wool bonnets, it works great.Aloha,Kokua