# Aston Martin DBS how we polish them after being painted.



## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

This Aston Martin DBS came into work for repairs, front end for stone chips, o/s quarter dented, o/s door is a blend, n/s front wing is a blend. As I was polishing for a while at work, thought I'd take some pics of the way we do it. All the products used are from 3m.

Below first pics taken are of the gun finish out of the spraybooth.









































Next it is orbital sanded with P1500 to remove any orange peel and imperfections.

































Then same again with P2000 only got couple of pics of this as doesn't look much different from above pics.

















Last stage is with P3000 trizact disc all done wet by orbital sander, then if needed we will use P6000 trizact aswell.

































Then polishing stages will all be done using 3m 3stage polishing system.

































































Final couple of pics car outside all done, did mean to get some more but didn't get chance for any better ones.


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## Benn (Aug 22, 2007)

Beautiful. Fantastic paint job too.


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

Top turnaround.


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## P.M.J. (Dec 15, 2012)

Lovely finish.

The sanding of the clear coat finish; is it an optional extra to get the finish completely flat or is it the way you always do it?


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

P.M.J. said:


> Lovely finish.
> 
> The sanding of the clear coat finish; is it an optional extra to get the finish completely flat or is it the way you always do it?


It's the way we do all the astons we repair, as the paint finish has to be flat and peel free. :thumb:


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## Beni786 (Aug 3, 2012)

Great job, great motor!


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## Cthrower (Sep 19, 2011)

Do you wet it on the 1500, and 2000 or do you dry sand those and just wet the 3000?


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## P.M.J. (Dec 15, 2012)

Andyb0127 said:


> It's the way we do all the astons we repair, as the paint finish has to be flat and peel free. :thumb:


I see. I guess Astons are synonymous with a very high paint finishing level by that very fact that each car is painted and finished by hand at the "factory".

Was curious because I have my Alfa in for a partial re-spray right now, but I don't expect they'll do any sanding though…


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## e_king (Oct 11, 2012)

Great job and very interesting. Do use the orbital sander all around the car? If so I can imagine how little pressure there must be on the curves. Almost lifting it? Still learning here.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

Cthrower said:


> Do you wet it on the 1500, and 2000 or do you dry sand those and just wet the 3000?


No we don't wet it on 1500/2000 that's done dry, only 3000/6000 are done wet as there trizact discs which work alot better when wet.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

P.M.J. said:


> I see. I guess Astons are synonym with a very high paint finishing level by that very fact that each car is painted and finished by hand at the "factory".
> 
> Was curious because I have my Alfa in for a partial re-spray right now, but I don't expect they'll do any sanding though…


They may partially sand it and polish. 
With the Mercedes and bmw that we repair, they do get sanded buy not to the level of the astons as we have to leave some peel in the paint to leave it as close to the factory paint as we can. :thumb:


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

e_king said:


> Great job and very interesting. Do use the orbital sander all around the car? If so I can imagine how little pressure there must be on the curves. Almost lifting it? Still learning here.


Thanks mate.
Yes we sand all the new paint, on the whole panel. But your right we don't use alot of pressure we let the sander do the work, but tend to keep always from edges as it can be very easy to sand through it. Can be bit scary at times the way we polish them. We rely on the painters putting enough paint on and a nice even finish which makes it easier. :thumb:


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## Mojito (Nov 25, 2008)

Nice work and very nice finish!


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## ted11 (Jul 8, 2011)

lovely job.


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## Aaran (Sep 18, 2007)

nice andy. how much faster is the DA on a disk compared to a block and doing it all by hand? also how many DA sheets are you going though on a job like that?

i still do mine by hand, be my luck to get a bit of grit in the pad on a DA and it puts pig tails all the way down the clear :lol:


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## robdcfc (Sep 17, 2012)

The 3m 260l disc are great for flatting fresh lacquer, we use them all the time


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## craigeh123 (Dec 26, 2011)

Sweet paint job , looked ace out the booth tbh &#55357;&#56842;


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## FlawlessDetailing (Mar 13, 2010)

Really nice job man. :thumb:
Interesting to know you sand that rough dry. 

Also as Aaron asked, how many sheets did you go through of each ? 

Cheers.

Padraic


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

Aaran said:


> nice andy. how much faster is the DA on a disk compared to a block and doing it all by hand? also how many DA sheets are you going though on a job like that?
> 
> i still do mine by hand, be my luck to get a bit of grit in the pad on a DA and it puts pig tails all the way down the clear :lol:


Thanks Aaron.
To be honest mate it is faster, but the down side is you do use alot of discs on a job that size, more than you would if we wet flatted it so to be honest product usage wise is say wet flatting would work out cheaper, as a box of 260l 1500 discs is quite expensive. 
Your right there mate trying to keep it clean so we don't get any dirt on the discs to cause pigtails, we also use an interface pad on the da which you have to make sure its on correctly, if not the Velcro can cause some lovely pigtails, must admit think I still prefer wet flatting really, but that's probably because I'm old school :lol:


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

FlawlessDetail said:


> Really nice job man. :thumb:
> Interesting to know you sand that rough dry.
> 
> Also as Aaron asked, how many sheets did you go through of each ?
> ...


Thanks mate. 
Yes mate sounds strange but its all done dry until we start using trizact discs. Seems the days of good old wet flatting have gone.
To be honest mate alot will depend on the size if the job your dry sanding, and his hard/soft the paint is to how many discs you use. As we use the 3m 260l da discs which are quite expensive, there are cheaper versions but would they last as long as the 3m ones.


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## minty-e46 (Jan 15, 2013)

Love the progress pics, was a bit shocked to see the full car wet sanded but was all worth it in the end


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## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

P.M.J. said:


> I see. I guess Astons are synonymous with a very high paint finishing level by that very fact that each car is painted and finished by hand at the "factory".
> 
> Was curious because I have my Alfa in for a partial re-spray right now, but I don't expect they'll do any sanding though…


It's been years since Aston's have been known for high quality paint finishing.

They are painted by robot, come along a production line where 4 guys have 20 minutes to sand an polish an entire car. 
They leave the dealer with DA marks, holograms and marring on most if not all new Astons.
The Onyx black is also painted without the correct hardener in the basecoat, as it blocks the robot's spray tips.. so they just leave it.
The result is a black car that marks with anything apart from the super softest of MF cloths. So soft that if you complain to AML, they send it to the heritage centre to be resprayed properly.


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## Scoobycarl (Aug 13, 2011)

Was going to say how do you stop them pesky pigtails,we use the mirka silver 1500 da disks on interface pad wet then 3000 trizact but do get those pigtails.Have not used the 3m 260l disks,we also liked the farecla 1500 as they dont have holes and pigtail less,even degreasing with a mf cloth before and during doesnt stop em,wet flat is better for that reason but da seems to get it flatter with no peel.

Good work on the aston mate by the way,carl.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

Scoobycarl said:


> Was going to say how do you stop them pesky pigtails,we use the mirka silver 1500 da disks on interface pad wet then 3000 trizact but do get those pigtails.Have not used the 3m 260l disks,we also liked the farecla 1500 as they dont have holes and pigtail less,even degreasing with a mf cloth before and during doesnt stop em,wet flat is better for that reason but da seems to get it flatter with no peel.
> 
> Good work on the aston mate by the way,carl.


It may be because your using the mirka discs wet. I must admit the 260l discs are really good we use them dry, and dont really seem to suffer that many pigs tails, all we do is use the da at a really slow speed, but dont apply any pressure to. Let the da do the work. Definatly give the 260l a go think you'll be suprised how different they are to use. :thumb:


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## Benn (Aug 22, 2007)

CraigQQ said:


> The Onyx black is also painted without the correct hardener in the basecoat, as it blocks the robot's spray tips.. so they just leave it.
> The result is a black car that marks with anything apart from the super softest of MF cloths. So soft that if you complain to AML, they send it to the heritage centre to be resprayed properly.


Really? That's shocking!


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## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

Benn said:


> Really? That's shocking!


What I was told by one of the head bodyshop guys at the AM heritage centre while doing a car there.

An onyx black car no less.. and it was a nightmare.. (this was one that hadn't been repainted as they wanted to see if a quartz coating would make it hard enough to resist marring instead of repaint)


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

CraigQQ said:


> What I was told by one of the head bodyshop guys at the AM heritage centre while doing a car there.
> 
> An onyx black car no less.. and it was a nightmare.. (this was one that hadn't been repainted as they wanted to see if a quartz coating would make it hard enough to resist marring instead of repaint)


craigh you're bang on one of my mates used to be a paint sprayer at AM the horror stories he told me made me cringe :wall:


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## P.M.J. (Dec 15, 2012)

CraigQQ said:


> It's been years since Aston's have been known for high quality paint finishing.
> 
> They are painted by robot, come along a production line where 4 guys have 20 minutes to sand an polish an entire car.
> They leave the dealer with DA marks, holograms and marring on most if not all new Astons.
> ...


You are well informed and frankly it's a tad disappointing to learn the state of things there.

But still, and taken from AM's website (http://www.astonmartin.com/colour-and-trim), it's so easy to get the wrong picture and interpret it as also painting is done by hand:
_"The quality of exterior and interior detailing has always marked out Aston Martin from its rivals. Each of our cars is painted and finished by hand, receiving up to nine applications of paint -a process that takes more than 50 man-hours"_

Well, there it looks like that the emphasis should only be on "finished by hand"…


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

Top drawer Andy! Some finish you got straight out of the gun! :thumb:


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## Gretsch-drummer (Sep 17, 2010)

Dammit Andy.......TEACH ME!!!!!


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

suspal said:


> craigh you're bang on one of my mates used to be a paint sprayer at AM the horror stories he told me made me cringe :wall:


I've seen a fair few new Astons with struck through edges (when you next see an AM up close,have a look for struck through edges as you WILL find some!) which have just been touched in with marker pens!


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