My trucks black and been thinking about colorsanding it.
Anyone have experience with this? Suggestions?

 

What exactly is your problem with the paint and how old is it, or what condition is it in? I wetsand and buff paint every day. Most is fresh stuff I've painted but I do older stuff as well. If I can't help you noone can but I need to know exactly what your trying to fix/achieve. If you go to aggresive with your sandpaper you'll never get the sand scracthes out of black.

 

My paint is only 6months old. I hate the spidering and light scratches I see everywhere. I had heard that color sanding makes the paint a little cleaner and more resistive to the spidering.

I basically want the black to look perfect. ( I know that wont happen)

My next step towards perfection is going to be getting the Zaino system.

 

Please don;t go anywhere near a 6 month old truck with sandpaper in your hands. Unless it's been severly abused that won't do anything but make it worse. A good swirl remover and polish job is all you need, It take some patience and technique but you can get all thos swilr marks out in a few hours. Follow up the swirl remover with a good polish and then a good wax coat and you'll be set. Being a painter I'm limited to the stuff that won't fisheye paint but I still like the 3M swirl mark remover for getting those scratches out of black. Now I know there is some awesome stuff out there that the guys on tis site use but I can't use anything that will mess up my paint jobs so maybe someone else can reccomend a better polish or wax step. Zaino is really really popular but I have'nt used it yet.

 

I would never do the colorsanding myself! A friend of a friend did this to his black Ram when it was fairly new and it turned out good. Maybe it was something different, but I was told it was colorsanding.

Anyways, I have tried the Maguires strach remover and it doesnt even touch the spidering, I actually think it made it worse.

Maybe Ill try the 3M, any tips with that?

Or Just stick with the Zaino plan.

 

you won't be colorsanding, but you can clean up the orange peel and other imperfections. Without experience, I'm not sure I'd try it.
Buy a book and read up, trucks had a show on it a while back too.

 

3m's products work very well, I believe it's there fine-cut line.

 

THe best 3M line is the Perfect-It 3 and if you buy the Compund and the machine polish/swilr mark remover you'll be able to get all those nasties out of your paint. It takes some experience so you probably wanna practice on something else first. If you're gonna do it yourself just try a small portion at a time until you get it. YOu really dont have to worry about burning through if you keep the speed down on the buffer and keep it moving. Also remember to use the correct pad for each product. A variable speed buffer is a must and should be set aroun 2400-2600 rpm's. Start with the compound a keep doinf 3'x3' sections until you've done the whole truck. Also use a little water to keep the heat down on your panels. After you get all the compound cleaned up go to the polish an repeat the hwole process. Follow with a good polish and wax. Sounds easy but it's not and it's gonna take alot of time, but it's really the only way to remove all those spiderweb scratches and not just hide them with a wax that will wash off after a few washes. If you;re gonna pay someone to do it make sure they are'nt just gonna hide the swirls because lots of products will do this.

 

That's it, Perfect-it. I was to lazy to go look in the garage. I like 3m's cutting products over Meguirs Professional, since those seem to be the most locally available. If you use it, cover your black plastic and rubber with tape

 

If you use it, cover your black plastic and rubber with tape


Great advice there! I had to buy a guy a new upper bumper pad cuz I could'nt get the compound out of it. Try not to sling that stuff on all your trim!