Fitting up and Polishing

After the final coat has been sprayed you must resist temptation to “improve that bit” and leave the car for at least a week. Again this is dependent on temperature and how much paint you've put on so might be even longer in colder months.

If you really must do something (and I know the temptation well) then start to carefully remove the masking. The great danger at this stage is that the paint will be touch dry but soft so it will be very easy to leave an imprint if you catch it.

You really, really ought to go and leave it alone....

Also you can lift and tear the paint when removing the masking, so I tend to run around the edges with a sharp knife blade, a scalpel or craft knife, to break the link between masking and bodywork.

There will no doubt be a light orange peel effect depending how thin your final coats were, but this is nothing to worry about.

Cut back with 1000grit using wet soapy water and polish with G3 paste compound, followed by T cut and finally a wax polish.

This takes ages but is very rewarding as the car comes to life.

You can use a polishing machine but I prefer to do this stage by hand as although the paint will be at least a week old it is still relatively soft and will mark if you’re not careful. I tend to concentrate at the areas around badges, lights, etc so that I can slowly assemble the car as the rest hardens off.

These final photo shows the car fully fitted up, all ready to collect more stone chips :-(

It has had been cut back on the flat panels using 1000grit paper with very soapy water followed by hand polishing with G3 paste, T cut and finally a wax polish.

I will leave it until the spring and re-polish with T-cut after which I think it might be ok.