Part 1: How to Wetsand, Cut & Buff Custom Paint

Part 1: How to Wetsand a Muscle Car
Mike Phillips teams up with Bruno Massel the 2012 NHRA Comp Eliminator National Champion and co-host of Truck U on Speed Channel to lead a team of people to fully wetsand, cut and buff a brand new "House of Kolor" paint job on a 1967 AMC AMX Muscle Car.
Sponsors
To help see this project through to success we have a number of sponsors we would like to thank for their contributions.
3M
Dennis Povio, the Senior Account Representative has offered to supply all the sanding products will need including 3M wet/dry sanding papers, backing pads and Trizact Sanding Discs.
Flex North America
Bob Eichelberg, the President of Flex Power Tools North America will be supplying Flex Rotary Buffers and Dual Action Polishers to do all the machine cutting and polishing.
Menzerna USA
Jeff Silvers, President of Menzerna USA will be providing all the compounds and polishes for compounding and polishing the paint to perfection. This will include the brand new Fast Gloss 400 Compound or FG 400.
Lake Country Pad Manufacturers
Eric Dunn, the Senior Account Manger for Lake Country Manufacturing will be providing all the wool and foam cutting pads needed for each of the compounding and polishing steps all the way through the project.
Autogeek.net
Max McKee, the President and CEO of Autogeek.net and Palm Beach Motoring Group will be providing products from the Pinnacle Natural Brilliance Line for adding all the finishing touches inside and out to create a true, rolling work of art. Max has also waived the traveling and on-location appearance fees for Yancy and me.
Grit Guard
The wonderful family behind the Grit Guard company, Doug, Luan, Chris and Alli are sending a Grit Guard Universal Pad Wash and Detailing Cart.
One of the most important things Mike teaches in all his classes is the importance of working clean and when it comes to doing the compounding and polishing steps to BLACK paint after a full wetsand process it's vitally important to clean your pads often, especially during the compounding step when using wool cutting pads with rotary buffers.

[@kennonmills803]

Great to see Mike still doing this. I remember all the great instruction and pointers he gave to me at Meguiar's Thursday Night Open Garage sessions. The guy is a fountain of knowledge.

[@juansierra4676]

Those were good times.... I left Meguiar's in 2009 and joined Autogeek and still going strong here at Autogeek! -Mike Phillips

[@Detailology73]

Hi Mike - your best videos yet. sanding is what I am very hungry to master - both wet/dry/damp. Sanding is so much better than buffing hard with any pad and tool thanks for the demo's with machine and hand sanding - I plan to get trained on this by our mutual friend renny doyle but I'd love to learn from as many people as possible. Cheers

[@autogeek]

Renny is a great guy and of professional character, you will do well with his instruction. -Mike Phillips

[@autogeek]

Good technique, clean soft foam pad and a true premium quality Ultra Fine Cut Polish. For most people, it's easier to "change the action of the tool" to finish out and by this I mean switch to a dual action polisher. -Mike Phillips

[@shagnat]

What you do with a car's paint is miraculous! Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[@Detailology73]

thanks Mike, 2014 is when I'm planning to do the training then go to sema

[@All2Skitzd]

Skip to about 8 minutes in

[@mesothorium]

I just start with a P1500 wet, then a P3000 Wet, Compound + Polish. Never had any issues. All on a DA. Hand sanding is something i try to avoid. Unless it is a difficult place to reach.

[@autogeek]

Yep... that's what I teach. Machine sanding when you can, hand sanding when you need to. -Mike Phillips

[@ThatDanDude]

Nicely done.

[@michaelmichaelmichea]

Fine car workers good video

[@autogeek]

We finised out with SF 4000 and that's actually pretty fine. A lot of people see the car is NOT assembled and don't understand that during the process of assembling the car MORE SCRATCHES will be put into the paint and the paint will need to be POLISHED AGAIN. After all is said and done and the car is running and driving, tha'ts when you go all out. Not in the middle of the project. Make sense? -Mike Phillips

[@solmontez8465]

Can i use a Rupes Bigfoot to colorsand custom paint will it work just as good and just as fast as a traditional rotary

[@pojoe1975]

Great vid mike

[@autogeek]

You can but it will take longer. Heck you could use a Porter Cable to remove sanding marks but that will take longer too. The fastest and most efficient way to remove sanding marks is with a rotary buffer, a wool pad and a great compound. If you want to use a less powerful tool then be sure to finish out using as high a grit sanding paper or discs you can obtain. Autogeek carries #3000 and #5000 grit. -Mike Phillips

[@123tsawyer]

What speeds are you buffing at ? Do you offer any classes I live in Tampa? My car was just painted and I don't trust the guy to buff it out his shop is a pig pen.

[@EZrussian]

Hi Mike, how do you wet sand straight horizontal deep key scratch. Do you use horizontal hand movement or vertical or circular? Thank you!

[@autogeek]

I sand against it about 90 degrees. Be careful my friend. -Mike Phillips

[@TheSpeedfreak81]

Mike, curious after all those steps why you didn't opt for SF4500, ESP on black paint? That would have been my choice.

[@damonsallee31]

Hello.i was wondering.i have a 3m 28337 orbital sander.can I set it up to polish my car sins it is da?

[@opie7afe]

this is my project for today, finally got my celicas front end painted so just getting some inspiration/motivation to do it( i hate hate hate sanding) and wish i could use my PC DA but dont have an interface pad! oh well!

[@autogeek]

Thanks but keep in mind this was a team effort, I'm just part of the team... -Mike Phillips

[@CarlosMendoza-yt7wp]

Hey Mike...I work in a body shop nd I bought me a rupes....wat kind of pads do u recommend for removing sanding marks.or Is the rupes more for paint correction after polishing it out with a rotary polisher ...cus I use a dewalt normally to buff out sand Mark's . Can u give me tips

[@CarlosMendoza-yt7wp]

Wat u think is better sonax compounds or menzerna??

[@Brulserz]

I am sorry for the question but is there any difference between sanding in circular motion and sanding back and forth like you did? And.. can you sand just by hand without a block or not? Thank you.

[@rishirathore254]

is there any trick to remove swirl mark with rotatory polisher............

[@tylerfortner8926]

playing online games "since i was real little" eeak!

[@kubanc1991]

hey how many grid sand paper do you use by hand , before 3000 with maschine,

[@autogeek]

We started with #1000 grit, then went to #1500 and then #3000 -Mike Phillips

[@kubanc1991]

Autogeek is not dangerous to damaged the paint ? once i damged paint when i try to remove scratches from vw cady 2005 :D

[@kubanc1991]

kubanc1991 . with hand to 3000....with da maschine 5000 ? and than buffing?

[@autogeek]

kubanc1991 . I'm not sure what you're asking. I'd recommend joining our forum where it's a LOT easier to "discuss" car detailing projects as it's a better interface to type in than these little message boxes here on Facebook. www.autogeekonline.net/forum/register.php Besides that I can insert pictures, links to articles and videos a lot easier on the forum. -Mike Phillips

[@daroldlutzow6363]

Autogeek

[@jhonnyc9609]

great video but i have seen other videos with much lees tecnical explanations and with the same results or better

[@mcdamike]

a very informative video. too bad not in better quality.

[@clemsontigz1]

Complete overkill. Unless the painter sucks . You can actually start with 2000 and I finish with 2500. Use 3m perfect it kit and waalaa. Been slingin Satas and Iwata paint guns for 18 years. Ive buffed a few in my day.

[@blaker1779]

jeez how many products are you trying to sell? Five different sanding papers, two different sanders, two different polishing/cutting compounds applied by two different buffing/polishing type machines....or at least I think, I lost count

[@zre909]

Hey, mike! I'll let you paint my car for free

[@joealvardo3618]

Needs to use more water.

[@Mike-01234]

Why have a classic car without the old school exhaust smell never understand why people want a fuel injected engine in a classic car ruins the entire experience

[@soulorocket]

NOBODY who does these cut and buff videos.....EVER shows how to Cut and Buff THE EDGES! All they say is......just get NEAR them and be careful! Must be the PRO'S screw it up a lot.

[@paulsouza85]

12:55 just blow on it. You guys are funny. Videos too long cut out all the intros.+ you left out the black guy.