How to get the best shine on Enamel Black?

[BigMarv]

Working on a Cylon helmet and applying black gloss enamel as an undercoat for Alclad II laquer.

Basically I need the very best possible shine before I apply the Alclad, so what techniques do you guys recommend for best results?

e.g. will wet sanding help or hurt the finish - I'm a real noob at this kind of thing so don't be afraid to say VERY obvious things

Many thanks in advance.

Marv.

 

[Jango 5204]

wet sanding will smooth it out, but it will be dull with scratches. When color sanding on a base/clear, the fine scratches are later buffed out with compond. I wouldn't sand the black if you need it to stay shiny. Now using some primer and wetsanding before the black will help keep things smooth so you don't see "orange peel" on your final coat of black.

 

[The Asylum]

Try paper towels. Take a towel, fold it into a smallish square and use light pressure to begin buffing the paint. After a while you'll get a feel for how much pressure you need to use.

 

[sl tk8456]

You guys have stuff called applesauce.
It's for polishing Ipods etc

 

[Huntman]

your joking right?

 

[sl tk8456]

Nope. I bought some for my ipod a while back. 2 part stuff. 1 removes scratches, the other shines! I used it on my psp too.
Saying that a nicely sanded surface with a layer of clear laquer should be cool

 

[stormtrooperguy]

your joking right?

i think it's applepolish, not applesauce. i have some at home, but i can't remember the name.

but yeah, it's a product designed for caring for your apple computer products, like ipods and the older ibooks.

it's a buffing kit to keep your ipod shiny-new looking.

 

[Bubba Fett]

You can also use some polish that they sell at TAP Plastics. It has 3 different polishes, the final one basically being a swirl remover. I used this refinishing a guitar and on some plastic parts - it worked great.

 

[superjedi]

Yeah, polish made for plastics should do the trick, as long as you're careful to remove all the residue.
I've used Novus on some of my display cases. Works great.

 

[BigMarv]

The problem is that I will be spraying Alclad over the top, so I can't have any residue on the helmet. As such its move a case of buffing as opposed to polishing.

So I did a bit more digging and heard about 3M "perfect-it" rubbing compound. Could'nt get this in the auto stores (this is the UK), so I got normal rubbing compound and this seemed to react to the enamel (perhaps this was because it contained petroleum distillates).

So now I'm going down the Micro-Mesh route .... we shall see what we shall see.

Regards

Marv.