Itinerant Air-Cooled

The painting is done! Pics to come soon.

I shot with SS urethane and as it sits now it looks like I used an egg shell interior paint, and Im fine with that. It hides the little imperfections left behind and will hide any issues in future. I never intended on a show quality finish and I fully expect it to get scratched and dinged because of the use it will be subjected to. This is our camping/traveling vehicle and the kids, or me, are not very gentle.

My question is this. Is it a must to color sand and buff? Is there an advantage to leave it so that in the future I can just easily spray for touch ups?

The other side of this is that I dont want to color sand because I feel that if I sink soooo much time into it looking incredible and then kids run their bike into it that I will be angry that they scratched the new paint. You can see where Im leaning but I cant see any reason that it is a must to sand/buff.

Mulcheese wrote:The painting is done! Pics to come soon.

I shot with SS urethane and as it sits now it looks like I used an egg shell interior paint, and Im fine with that. It hides the little imperfections left behind and will hide any issues in future. I never intended on a show quality finish and I fully expect it to get scratched and dinged because of the use it will be subjected to. This is our camping/traveling vehicle and the kids, or me, are not very gentle.

My question is this. Is it a must to color sand and buff? Is there an advantage to leave it so that in the future I can just easily spray for touch ups?

The other side of this is that I dont want to color sand because I feel that if I sink soooo much time into it looking incredible and then kids run their bike into it that I will be angry that they scratched the new paint. You can see where Im leaning but I cant see any reason that it is a must to sand/buff.

A smoothed surface is less prone to absorbing environmental attacks. Don't worry about color-sanding making it look incredible. You want to sand off the mountain peaks then polish down and seal with wax. Take your time. You can do little sections all summer.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:

Mulcheese wrote: A smoothed surface is less prone to absorbing environmental attacks. Don't worry about color-sanding making it look incredible. You want to sand off the mountain peaks then polish down and seal with wax. Take your time. You can do little sections all summer.
Colin

This is actually my main concern. If I sand do you think that hand buff with compound will return the gloss? I have been considering this. I do like the appearance but feel that itr will attract and hold grime.

Mulcheese wrote:

Amskeptic wrote:

Mulcheese wrote: A smoothed surface is less prone to absorbing environmental attacks. Don't worry about color-sanding making it look incredible. You want to sand off the mountain peaks then polish down and seal with wax. Take your time. You can do little sections all summer.
Colin

This is actually my main concern. If I sand do you think that hand buff with compound will return the gloss? I have been considering this. I do like the appearance but feel that itr will attract and hold grime.

Yes. Final sand needs to be 1000 grit, followed by a decent rubbing compound like 3M, followed by wax.
There are no true shortcuts in life.
Colin