Polishing help

[AndrewCross]

I've been trying to polish my Gotti G1001s for way too long and I can't seem to get it right. I'm probably making some stupid mistakes. The only real problem I'm having is with the buffing.

I had the wheels soda blasted to get rid of the remaining paint about a month ago. I start wetsanding at 120 grit, then move on to 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000. Then I use a 6" Ryobi buffer (3600RPM) and a denim wheel with brown tripoli, and a spiral sewn cotton wheel with white rouge. Finally, I polish them with either wenol or white diamond.

The buffing gives the luster I want, but only from an angle or in indirect light.
I don't have a buff rake, so I use 100 grit sandpaper and then a sawblade, which is probably pretty stupid.
I don't use different compounds on the same buffing wheels.
I'm using medium/high pressure with the white compound.

Here are some photos:

so, yeah, any advice or input would be greatly appreciated

[staystetti]

You're doing way too many grits anyways..

Guessing the 120 is just going too deep for the 220 to cover. Start w 220 only if 400 can't get the corrosion/rust off- it should be able to- then 600, 800 optional, 1000, 1500, rubbing compound, hand polish with microfiber. There may be something on your buffing wheel that's creating imperfections. Remember only polish in clean environments away from dirt and things, etc. Also make sure your polishing compound is meant to polish the specific metal.
PM me if you need any more advice

[KyleAnderson]

120 is really aggressive, and I can see you're not spending enough time at the next grit to remove the deep scratches. You'll have to go back to 220 and work up again. You may need an intermediate grit to speed things up. Small steps are important in the beginning. As staystetti said, you could skip a couple in the later stages.

[AndrewCross]

Thanks guys, I'm starting at 120 to get the pitting from the blasting out. I could probably get away with starting at 220. Should I be changing angles often with the same grit, or changing angles between grits?

[Dr.AK]

Do you swap out the water you use for wet sanding often?

You could try going in alternating directions with each successive step.

To me it basically just looks like you haven't sanded enough to get the marks from the coarse grit out.


There will occassionally be cases where you definitely have to start with such a coarse grit, I'm doing a set of OZ lips for a mate currently and I have to start with 180 grit myself.


My mate stripped the paint using a nylon wheel so the lips looked terrible when he brought them.



This is what I ended up with after I spent some time sanding them down using 180 grit:



Next, I went to 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 2000.



And hit em with the polishing disc and some polishing compound. After that, went over them again by hand with a microfiber towel and Ecromal. Flawless finish.






My main advice would be to keep sanding, sanding, sanding! Especially with the more coarse grits. Once you've got a base with the 180, you will really need to sand a lot to get all the marks out with the 240 or even 320. Doing it in alternate directions might help to see your process.



Also, a good substitute for a buff rake is to just use a clean wire brush.