T cutting the car - help?

Hi guys, quite some time ago now some little buggers keyed my black Landy - side panel and bonnet. It went down to the primer, so over the last couple of weeks I've been going over the scratches with a fine brush and a black paint I bought from Land Rover and once dry (leaving 48 hours to dry) I've been using Grit 2000 to rub off the excess to make it even again. I reckon now it's all done and I'm hoping (and praying) that with some G3 compound and a good mop it'll come out shiny. A long shot but I want to try it before forking out for a respray, thing is I'm a bit worried about compounding the car and making it worse So I'm hoping someone on here might have done this before and is looking for a bit of "cash" work? I'm prepared to drive within Hertfordshire or Essex I've got most of the stuff to do it, G3 compound, and a buffer, mop and pads and I'll do the polishing at home afterwards. Anyone interested?

C

well first of all you mentioned you wanna try this before you get a respray, so if your mindset is ok for a respray then nothing you do can make it any worse - have some confidence!!

on a flat panel, with a fast machine and G3, it takes about 5 minutes of polishing in the same place to polish all the paint off down to the primer, so dont worry toooooo much about going through, just take your time and be steady. if your still worried, then add some water to the panel at regular intervals as you polish - this breaks down the G3 and makes it less and less harsh (it breaks down the pyramid shaped cutting compounds that actually cut the surface back, and done properly can give you an almost swirl-free mirror finish).

your choice of 2000 paper is perfect, only removes a tiny amount of surface paint, and leaves the compound with alot less to do. the more work you do with 2000 the better. once the surface of the touch up paint is level with the origional paint, then get 2 small blobs of G3 (10p coin size each blob) on your mop head and spread it round an area roughly half a square meter in size. start the machine off slowly and build it up to about 4000rpm, making sure the head is always moving across the surface at about 2cm a second. if you leave the head in the same place for too long it will build up heat and start damaging the paint. when you see the polish start to dry out (after roughly 1-2 minutes on a fresh mop head) then add a bit more polish. soaking the mop head in polish DOES NOT make the job faster or look better, the mop head helps with the cutting and if you soak it in polish it becomes inneffective. keep going untill the flattening marks are mostly gone, then spray a small amount of water on the panel to thin the G3 and really get the shine back. on black you will probably get alot of swirls, these cant be removed by G3 unless your VERY good at polishing - so use a hand glaze to get rid of them.


failing all that - go and get it muddy!!

As above but after compounding i wash car off dry and use finese or finish compound, this is a much finer cut and will remove a lot of the swirls you will have after using g3 compound. use a black mop head for the finese/finish compound its a softer foam, i use a hand pump spray bottle like the ones that house hold window cleaner comes in to apply water. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS IN THE SUN OR IF THE PANELS ARE HOT IE. THE BONNET, cover the rest of the car with a sheet as the mop will spay compound every where and DONT GET IT ON ANY PLASTIC AS IT WILL STAIN IT. Take your time let the machine do the work don't apply to much preasure the weight of the machine should be enough, be very carfull at any edges.
After that a couple of hand polishes should take out some more of the swirls.
Before you get to carried away with a mop have you tried doing it by hand?

water the g3 down use about 50 50 with water or it will swirl your paint work really badly seen it happen a few times on black cars at work

My 2002 Disco is Java black and i have machine polished both sides with G3....i have NO swirl marks....I always use the best mophead that is available and here is a little trick for you.....I have a POLISHING MOP as well which i apply the body polish with.

Dave

t cut and g3 then autoglym radiant wax (yellow trade stuff) from flat paint to this 80% done

just go steady with g3 as you can easily break through lacquer if you go mad

Thats nice and shiny fanatic what engine has it got?

VR6 204hp (according to paperwork with it) Genuine documented less than 40k on clock

Very nice goes well aswell, been doing some work on a later one 05 plate 5 cylinder doosle thats a very odd engine, goes like stink but is a proper git to work on.

oldskool said:

Very nice goes well aswell, been doing some work on a later one 05 plate 5 cylinder doosle thats a very odd engine, goes like stink but is a proper git to work on.

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Try changing the front bank plugs on this one (book time 1.10 hours)
you need a special spark plug tool, front slam panel off,radiator forward.

Been through it and sorted everything (lack of use) and had a couple of nights on vagcom-bad earths

Great guys, thanks for your advice, I'll tackle it this weekend.
Step 1: wash the car
Step 2: squirt blobs of G3 Compound over car and using a white mop head use buffer (on a low speed) over car with someone spraying water at the same time.
Step 3: wash car again buy a black mop (softer) and using a finishing compound (any reccomendations?) go over it again to remove any swirls
Step 4: Wash again and then glaze the bugger!
Do I need to wax it if I've put on glaze?

Cheers
Al

That is one shiny car!

German engineering at its best, got a special tool for vr6 plugs goes over the metal part twists and hooks under the taps on the plug caps but they can still be a coont to get off. The water pump on the 5 cyl one is inside the engine so when it fails and the drain is blocked (as it always seems to be) all the coolant goes in the sump fooking brilliant idea.

Wanna up some Meguires ultimate compound with a da buffer then some tech wax

Auto glem is auto poo

FFS what a bunch of Anally Retentive OCD Tossers. Just get the fooker muddy and scratched and throw rthe wax in the bin where it belongs. Have been offroad in mine 6 times since I bought it & I've jetwashed the underneath twice. rest of it just gets washed off, when it rains.


GET A ****ING LIFE YA SAD FOOKERS....

bugger Red you beat me to it!
what the F*** do you want to polish a landy for? ther other day I had one of those supermarket carpark cash tossers come up and ask if I wanted the car washing - just pointed to my disco, he walked away....

I 've got to stop[ posting when ****ed

So here's the stuff I'm using, G3 then another go with some G10. I seem to have some "Black Top" hand glaze and a 5l tind of hand glaze...can't remember when I got all this stuff and which would be better to use. How about my mops then the one on the left is super soft so I reckon it'd do for the G10 compound, my buffer has speeds ranging from 600 rpm - 3000 rpm. Should I start off slowly and build up to about 1200 rpm?

Ta, Al

By the way, I spotted a couple of stone chips on the bonnet which needs a spot of touch up paint, how long should I wait for it to be safely dry before I start compounding?

redhand said:

Have been offroad in mine 6 times since I bought it & I've jetwashed the underneath twice. rest of it just gets washed off, when it rains.

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And the rest falls off with the rust