Electric sander/polisher or an air sander for pain

[soooty]

Have finished painting car and rubbed down with some 800 grit by hand. I dont want to do anymore wet sanding by hand. I see you can get 1200, 1500 amd 2000 grit 6inch sanding discs but don't know what sander to get. The electric ones seem very expensive £50-£100 for somethin decent. Looks as though the rpm can be easily set with an electric sander/polisher. None of them seem to have da function though except for ones that work over 4000rpm that would be no good for polishing also.
Anyway, since i have a compressor i thought it would be cheaper to get a da air sander, these are much cheaper £15- £40 for what looks like good quality ones. But i dont know whether they are suitable for finishing paint with 1500 grit and also for polishing with foam pad and g3 as there max speeds are about 10,000rpm which obviously would burn the paint. presumably i can just set the regulator on my compressor to lower pressure and only pull the sander trigger a small way in to get lower speeds.. but doesn't that mean i am guessing what rpm the sander is working at all the time?? will that work?

[Clive]

the air sander I bought was nothing but trouble. They have no torque and the 3hp compressor struggled. So maybe a combination of the two? Anyway, no longer used.
Anyway, a rotary electric polisher is what I have now bought, and that is good. Not expensive at about £40, I got the orange silverline one.
Bot for wet/dry, but flats paint PDQ with G3.
BTW 800 on topcoat :o? I used 800 on the primer, then about 3 hours with 1200 (plus soap) on the topcoat to get an even light matt finish. Then a few hours with the polisher to get the shine. But be careful, paint can disappear VERY fast.

[Goody]

Heed what Cliffey says.  Only use a buffer, sander if you know what you are doing.  Hand sanding while a pain is the only way to go unless you are a pro.   Porblem with air snaders is that they require a large volume of air.  Small compressors of 5 horse and single stage or less can't keep up.   Allyways look at the CFM requirment on any air tool before you buy and check your compressor can deleiver and keep up with the tool.  Ask me how I know.

[sparky_spit]

Ditto the above.. I bought a Clarke DA air sander (about £35) to use with my 3HP compressor and it was useless. You need about twice as much grunt as what the minimum requirement on the box says, in my opinion.

I eventually hand flatted the topcoat using 1500 and a rubber block, followed with G3, followed with T-Cut, then Autoglym polish, then Autoglym wax.

[thescrapman]

I have an air DA that I run on my 3HP compressor, not had too many issues, it does use more air that the compressor can supply, but starting with a charged 150litre tank I can get 10+ minutes before it starts to fade. More than enough vibration that i can stand and I have usually stopped for a rest after about 5 mins.

200 grit for ripping off old paint, going over filler and primer etc.

I hand flatted the paintwork with 800 wet and dry and then 1200, then used the DA with the G3 and then the polish.

Cheers

Colin

[willows40]

never thought of using a da for g3 not sure i would want to try it, i run a da off a 3hp 150 litre
compressor and like colin says about 10 min then wait for compressor to catch up. I would never use anything coarser than 1200 for flatting before polishing.

[soooty]

cliftyhanger wrote:

BTW 800 on topcoat :o? .

yh i went on a bit ruff. i used rustoleum, not your usual 2 pac that comes out nice and flat.  i dont like 2pac as i'm spraying in my garage and dont hav loads of expensive breathin gear.  There are a few places that need another coat tbh.. was tempted to just shine it up but better to do it properly and apply more paint fisrt.  I'm making faster progress now that i have a compressor and spray gun, i was used a roller to begin with