Buffed my tank today..

[Planetsmasher]

This is the original 33 year old paint job.. It's not flawless, but from 10 feet away it's pretty close to it. I listened to a lot of good advice from a friend in the autobody biz who cautioned me to take it slow on the sanding, and check often. I started with 2000 grit wet paper just to take the orange peel off of the top of the clearcoat..

[JEEPRUSTY]

Muy Bueno!

[Planetsmasher]

Then I used Maguires lite cut compound and a rotary buffer.. really carefully. Cleaned up the nooks and crannys with a rag and that was it. I could do this every year no problem. The tank took about 2 hours so the rest of it would add up to a good long day, but that's not much of a price to pay if you enjoy this type of thing.

[tkent02]

Confusion here, did you spray new clear over the old paint or is that the original clear coat?
Either way it looks great.

[Planetsmasher]

One more..

[Planetsmasher]

No Kent.. that's the original finish.

[Gorminrider]

Looks great! Do you have a picture of what the tank looked like before you polished?

[Flyboy]

Now can we have a photo from 9 1/2 feet away...
Nice work, looks very good,

[Planetsmasher]

Thanks Flyboy, Gormin... no unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to get a "before" shot. It was a LOT of swirl marks though... typical I think of years of washing up with dishsoap in a pail with an old T-shirt. The PO had garage stored it though, so the colour wasn't faded at all. Lucky me.

[Crankthat]

Looks great.

[trevor]

Looks great! So the pinstripes were under the clear coat too? Do you have to use extra care around them? Wonder if I could do mine with the Suzuki decals?
Nice job!

[Planetsmasher]

Yes Trevor the pinstripes are under the clearcoat. At first I sanded a little gingerly over them, but they are far from perfect anyways, so, soon enough, I ended up just going over them in the same manner as everywhere else. Truthfully, I think that 2000 grit takes off quite a lot less of the top then I feared when I began. In reality I don't think I ever got near the surface of the pinstriping with the sandpaper.

[83_450E]

2000 grit is perfect to take out minor surface imperfections, swirls and abrasions
1500 would level the surface taking out light scratches
1000 creates a new surface
my general rule of thumb