NHGuy
Captain
- Joined
- May 21, 2009
- Messages
- 3,631
I have recently bought an 87 Formula 223LS. It is, as many are, Maroon, Black and Grey. The red is pretty faded so I did some reading on reconditioning.
I decided to buy an air powered wet DA (dual action) sander. And I brought out some old techniques from my youth as a short timer auto body apprentice.
I am pleased to report the Harbor Freight sander didn't poop out like every one that was reviewed. I did a couple of things to keep it from breaking though. First off I torqued the 4 nuts that hold the pad onto the tool. Most of the folks who had trouble had them falling off. I bet there was a product revision, because I found nylock nuts and good quality screws in there. I also made sure to oil the tool, and set my compressor to the recommended pressure. Not a problem at all. The thing worked perfectly. I could only find 6" hook/loop paper so I cut them each time with a snap off razor knife.
Here are some pics. Only problem is you can't see the after shot as well as I can since the trailer's reflector strips bounced back the camera flash. I will try to
get a better pic and update my post another day.
I spent money for wet sandpaper, the tool, some compound, and polish. I already had a buffer "wheel" and some bonnets so that didn't cost extra. I feel pretty good that I got this far. An hour before dusk it was looking pretty poor, but it kind of came together toward the the end of the daylight.
On Saturday I repaired some gouges in the bottom, on Sunday I sanded them out and bought the wet sander for the hull sides. On Monday I was off work so I worked on one side's finish.
The process was like this. Sunday afternoon I gave it a try with some 600 grit wet or dry from a Pep Boys store. It didn't do much against the cloudy finish. So Monday I stopped by the real auto parts house. They had 3M system stuff. I bought a box each of 320,1000 and 1500. That was the trick.
One mistake I made was using Harbor Freight wet sandpaper. I took a piece of 1000 grit wet or dry to do the edges where my power tool would have caused problems or not fit. Bad result. I had to go over it with the 3M 1000 and 1500. The HF paper was more agressive than 400 hand or 320 machine stuff from 3M. HF 1000 grit sandpaper is not 1000! More like 220.
Might get the boat dunked next Sunday, fingers crossed!
I decided to buy an air powered wet DA (dual action) sander. And I brought out some old techniques from my youth as a short timer auto body apprentice.
I am pleased to report the Harbor Freight sander didn't poop out like every one that was reviewed. I did a couple of things to keep it from breaking though. First off I torqued the 4 nuts that hold the pad onto the tool. Most of the folks who had trouble had them falling off. I bet there was a product revision, because I found nylock nuts and good quality screws in there. I also made sure to oil the tool, and set my compressor to the recommended pressure. Not a problem at all. The thing worked perfectly. I could only find 6" hook/loop paper so I cut them each time with a snap off razor knife.
Here are some pics. Only problem is you can't see the after shot as well as I can since the trailer's reflector strips bounced back the camera flash. I will try to
get a better pic and update my post another day.
I spent money for wet sandpaper, the tool, some compound, and polish. I already had a buffer "wheel" and some bonnets so that didn't cost extra. I feel pretty good that I got this far. An hour before dusk it was looking pretty poor, but it kind of came together toward the the end of the daylight.
On Saturday I repaired some gouges in the bottom, on Sunday I sanded them out and bought the wet sander for the hull sides. On Monday I was off work so I worked on one side's finish.
The process was like this. Sunday afternoon I gave it a try with some 600 grit wet or dry from a Pep Boys store. It didn't do much against the cloudy finish. So Monday I stopped by the real auto parts house. They had 3M system stuff. I bought a box each of 320,1000 and 1500. That was the trick.
One mistake I made was using Harbor Freight wet sandpaper. I took a piece of 1000 grit wet or dry to do the edges where my power tool would have caused problems or not fit. Bad result. I had to go over it with the 3M 1000 and 1500. The HF paper was more agressive than 400 hand or 320 machine stuff from 3M. HF 1000 grit sandpaper is not 1000! More like 220.
Might get the boat dunked next Sunday, fingers crossed!