Steve's Auto Care

Hi, I'm Dave Brost. I work at Steves Auto Registrations here in Portland, Oregon. I've been in this business for about 20 years, and I'm going to show you how to cut, buff, and polish today. So let's get started. Before we get started, I'm going to show you all the products that we're going to use. As always, between processes, I always use an air gun and blow off the surface and clean it before the next step. In the first segment, I'm going to demonstrate color sanding. We're going to use 3M sandpaper in 1000 grit, 1500 grit, and 2000 grit. We'll be using our sanding blocks from DuraBlock, medi In the second segment, I'm going to demonstrate machine polishing techniques. We're going to be using 3M rubbing compound, using the Makita polisher. We have two different polishing pads that we'll be using. One is wool for rough cutting, and the foam pad is used for final glaze. This is the cleaning spur used to clean the polish from the wool pad. Anytime using a mechanized polishing device, be sure and use a dust mask and eye protection. In the final segment, I'm going to show you how to get that beautiful shine using Mother'showtime Instant Detailer, the application pads, and Mother's Pure Carnival Wax. The reason I'masking the hinges is because we don't want to color sand them or run the buffer against them to protect the paint. They get a lot of good flow from the paint gun when they're shot, so we don't need to get in here and color sand them or polish them up at all. It also helps to facilitate cleanup so that we don't spend an extra amount of time trying to clean up the panel. It's always a bonus when we've got the part of the car not attached to the car so that we can get around to all of the edges. The first thing I'm going to do is mask off the reveal, which is right here. It's a line that is used on the early 30s cars, and I don't want to color sand that with 1000 grit, which is what I start my color sanding with. I will sand it with 1500 grit in the second step, so we completely mask it off to protect it. I think I paint it wrong here to protect the gels, so that the residue from the color sanding doesn't make the mess of the rest of the viewer, and it's also left on while we buff the paint. The panel has been completely painted and clear coated, and you can see the texture right in here as it comes out of the booth. We've started a 1000 grit color sand right here, and you can see the transition area right here. I'm going to go in and continue the color sanding to get it smooth all the way across the panel.