I plan on trying to wet sand and buff car out - never done before but have been reading up on it. Plus current paint job is temporary so I screw it up not that big of an issue.. Since I willnot use it much I thought I could get a cheaper version. Any recommendations. I think at a minimum I need variable trigger speed anddial for setting up RPMS.Thaks in advance.

 

I went with quality and do not regret it. Used it to strip the car to metal then polish out the painting.
http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/m...tegory_Code=T2
If you look down the page you'll see a less expensive alternative. From the same site there is a really good article on "color sanding" original paint, which is a good overview of the method that will work with any car.
http://www.autobodystore.com/rsw.htm

 

I recently did this. I bought a shop polisher from Internet Ad Ventures kafjoker@comcast.net for $39.95 + 7.00 frt. It works great. I also bought from the Autobodystore.com1 quart of Sure Finish Polish and a foam velcro pad for about $55.00 delivered. They both did a teriffic job on my car. I sanded the car with 600, 1000, 1200 and then 2000 grit paper. After that I used the polisher with the foam pad only to finish. If you are slinging polish you are using too much. Run the polisher at the lowest speed.
Good Luck,
Wayne

 

Thanks for all the tips - bought the cheaper alternative from autobody Monday - showed up today. Seems pretty good for the money.Could not beleive how fast it showed up. I've got petty bad orange peel in paint. What the best way to determine what grit to star with? Most of research I've seen said finish with at least 2000.

 

Start with 1000 unless you have runs. I had serious checking along with heavy orange peel, is why I started with 600. Plus I have 20+ year old urathane paint which is quite hard.
Wayne

 

Sounds good - mine was suppose to have been painted a couple years ago. has some dust specs in clear and orange peel is fairly slight Can only see iffrom a less than couple feet away.

 

since you dont know what your doing dont start with anything less than 2000 theres less room for error with the finer grade paper is the finish metallic? are you sure its a bc/cc and not a single stage? if u start with a low grit paper u might snd thru how much paint it on it?? be very careful id try an inconpicous place like the lower rear quarter that way is not something that gonna jump out at you like the hood fender etc

 

I have replaced both front and rear valance and saved the parts and will practice on that. Finish is not metalic and is pretty obvious that it has clear coat. Also I'm going to be blacking out hood so I thought I could start there if I F it up I'll be painint over it anyway. Not sure how much paint is on it - got some chips and they are pretty deep. I thought the write up in the Autobody store was pretty good and was going to try and follow that

 

Any follow up report? Would like to know how it turned out!!

 

No not yet. Plan on blacking hood out this weekend. Then wet sanding and polishing next weekend. Unless I cave in and do some honey do stuff. Might practice on my sons beater truck first. Will post pics and how it went when done.