# Compounding / polishing 2k paint



## bigrace (Feb 6, 2016)

Hi all, A mate if mine has asked me to help polish up a bonnet for a tractor. It's been painted with 2 pack paint. It was painted about 3 months ago and just left in his garage. It has orange peel and a few runs so hes flatted down with some 2000 grit and asked me to see if I can get a decent shine back on it. I had a go yesterday with various pads and polishes but I still can see swirls in the paint. 
Pads used were 
Lake country microfibre with menzerna green line 400....didn't do much but left the paint hazy
Scholl purple with menz 400..... not as hazy but still not shifting swirls
Hex orange with menz 400.... canny shine but not shifting swirls

Machines used 
Das6 pro
Vertool forced drive

Any advice much appreciated 

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## bigrace (Feb 6, 2016)

Anyone

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## Steampunk (Aug 11, 2011)

Tractors are sometimes painted with industrial polyurethane paints like Imron, which are incredibly tough. If this is the case, and the swirls are deep, it could either take sanding, or a 'Let Loose The Dogs Of War' compound/pad combo on your Vertool to touch them. 

Meg's M100 or M101, or maybe one of the Scholl S2 series on short-fiber wool; primed heavily, and used with judicious pressure might start seeing them off if this is the case. 

Alternately if that's still not shifting it fast enough, sand (DA sanding will speed it up.), starting with P1000 Abranet, followed by P1500 (Ideally Trizact Film), followed by P3000 (Trizact Foam), and P6000 (Trizact Foam), followed by heavy compounding if there's enough material to work with. If you'd like to attempt it by hand, use a high quality SiC paper (Starcke, Mirka, or Unigrit), and start around P1200-1500. Don't miss a grit, sand 2-3 times longer with each subsequent grit, and go as high as you can grit-wise before buffing... You'd end up with an Amelia Island tractor bonnet, but if I'm right and it's a material of this nature, sometimes you have to pull out an insanely heavy hitter to combat it. 

If your mate wasn't really up to the sanding work (technique and cleanliness wise), and used a cheap paper to boot, he could have installed scratches and swirls FAR deeper than P2K. Even on a normal paint, FG400 with those pads might struggle with something of this nature. 

The fact it took such a gloss with the Hex Orange and a compound is what points me in the direction that it's a tough paint, though. 

Hope this helps... 

- Steampunk


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## bigrace (Feb 6, 2016)

Hi Steampunk
Many many thanks for the detailed advice.
This morning I hit the bonnet again with a combo of :-

Vertool forced 
Scholl blue spider pad
Menz f400
And a massive amount of downward pressure

All I can say is what a fantastic combination that is......

Finished up with the hex orange pad and menz 3500.
To say I'm chuffed to bits is an understatement and my mate is absolutely thrilled to bits. Once again many thanks for taking time to reply. I owe you one 

Dale

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## bigrace (Feb 6, 2016)

This is the tractor Massey Ferguson 135

































































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## Vossman (Aug 5, 2010)

Great to see something different on here, lots of people detail loads of things other than cars but rarely do we see the results here.

That tractor looks fantastic, is he going to show it or work it? 

Thanks for posting this :thumb:


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## bigrace (Feb 6, 2016)

It's gonna be put back to work after a couple of shows. It's took him about 8 years to get it fully restored. A full nut and bolt rebuild. The pic below is how it was when it first arrived and his son took a photo and put it on a father's day card









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