What Does DA Stand for on DA Sander/Polisher?

As I paint on my tractor, I'm developing a tremendous appreciation for those out there who can produce a shiny, smooth finish without any sanding scratches, dust nibs, moth and gnat carcasses, dog hair, drips, sags, runs, thin spots, dull areas, water droplets, solvent pops, or cracks.

My other problem is having champagne expectations on a Sam's Cola budget. VISA loves me!

Keep in mind that the final sanding on any paint job is by hand. After the DA's, long boards, orbitals ect, the final sanding of the primer prior to painting is done by hand using quality wet/dry paper and a sanding block. I used 240 grit or finer for final sanding.

Some will shudder at the thought of using anything coarser than 360, but keep in mind that if you put enough paint on the surface, then color sand and buff well you will not see the scratches. The slightly deeper scratches of 240-260 grit will hold more paint and hold it better than the shallow scratches of 360 grit and the paint will stick tighter and be less likely to come off.

There is a guy near here who makes a living as a "body man". He will paint an entire car using 2 quarts of paint and it shines pretty good. I asked him how he was able to make it shine with so little paint and not have the sanding scratches show. He said "What sanding scratches?. There will be no scratches if you don't sand". oooookaaaaayyyy..... ..... ..

Within a year the paint is peeling from the car but there is no warrantee.

Here is something I knew all along but I really got the message quiet by accident a few years ago.

I was painting my fathers Eldorado. The body work was completed. It was all primed out, hand sanded, masked off and I had it pulled outside in the sun as I swept and cleaned the floor in preparation for painting the next morning. I had tacked it down once and thought it looked very good and figured once more prior to painting would be fine.

I left to go buy the paint and let the car set in the sun. About the time I got to the store it came a "toad strangling" rain storm that lasted about 20 minutes. Big ol' silver looking drops that hit hard and dug holes in the ground! I thought the paper on the Caddy would be ripped and ruined.

Upon returning about an hour and a half later, I found everything looked fine. The rain had beaten the sanding sludge and dirt from the car and the sun had dried off the paper. All I had to do was dry around all the edges. As it turned out there was only 1 speck of dirt in the paint. Not bad for painting outside on a carport.

CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN...
you get the idea.

• Painting tools

Use a sanding block to keep the paper flat. If you use your bare hands you will cut slight grooves into the surface. The paper will not cut as well or last as long either. I would recommend a firm 3M sanding block that you can wrap paper around. A trick that we used to do was find a good, flat, straight wooden paint mixing stick and warp you paper around it.

If the weather is dry you can roll the paper into large diameter tubes and these work very well for inside curves. Roll the paper to the desired size and apply light sanding pressure or you will collapse the tube. No damage is done, just creases the paper and makes rerolling kinda aggravating.

I have made sanding blocks from a straight section of radiator hose with paper wraped around it. It works well also.

Good luck in your endevours.