Porter Cable XP Sanding & Kevin Brown Method

I’ve been wanting to try out some DA sanding with my new Porter Cable XP and test the infamous Kevin Brown Method to remove the marring. I’ve been faithfully using the KBM for a few months and love the way it carefully levels paint and creates substantial amounts of gloss all in one. I’ve heard some people warn of electrocution using water with an electric DA, some say that the PC’s throw is too long. I thought I’d give it try on a complete detail scheduled on this 04 Saab 9-3 and the paint was in very poor shape. The owner was seriously considering repainting it and gave me the go ahead to do whatever I wanted to the paint.

Befores:






I really wanted to use 3M 1500 Trizact, but realized I only had regular 1500 grit. I had did have a bunch of 3000 Trizact so I felt confident that any heavy sanding marks from the non-Trizact 1500 would easily be refined by following with 3000.



After carefully prepping the surface to insure that all topical contaminants were removed to facilitate safer sanding, I taped the edges with 3M ¾ inch painter’s tape. I wanted to stay as far away from the edges as possible to avoid strike through.

I then lubed the surface with an ONR clay lube mixture:



And then some lube on the sandpaper. I chose to do this wet, but it can also be done dry.



Set the speed between 3 & 4:



Final sanded = 1500 >>> 3000 Trizact:





Initial priming of the LC/CMA Orange Flat pad with Meg’s M105:








1 pass with M105 cleaned up all the sand scratches & left the finish with a decent amount of gloss. (I was able to work ½ the trunk in 1 pass)












Sun Shots after 105. Definitely pad micromarring, but not bad results after 1 easy pass.






Here’s after Meg’s 205 via LC/CMA White Flat pad:

 

Looks great, interesting you used the DA...I know that many people say that polishing DA's throw is too large for sanding as air DA's have a much shorter throw thus better for sanding, or do I have it the other way around?!? But anyways, came out looking great.

 

Wow, nice review and method used, saved that guy a paint job.

 

Looks fantastic. I'll have to try that. Final pics?

 

Looks amazing!

I really want to try out some wet sanding... want to get a PTG first...

 

Good plan!

 

Nice, Thanks for posting!

 

Impressive to say the least, and I'm thinking your customer was happy not having to spend thousands on getting a new paint job.

 

Man I'd like to try that out once I have the time.

 

Turned out SWEET David! Thanks for mentioning I had anything to do with the process, even though you did all the SCARY work :worship2:

I doubt that anyone could tell whether you rotary polished or random orbital polished the sanding marks away.

Thanks for making my online day! :hug:

 

A similar question came up on another forum.
Specific stroke sizes are not exclusive to air or electric-powered random orbital machines.
I own three Mirka air-powered machines, and all have different stroke sizes: 3/32", 3/16", and 5/16" (approximate).

Sorry for the re-post David, but mainly commenting on what you already know, which is that the Porter Cable's stroke size WILL work well for fine sanding. From the other forum:

 

Wow, great information there KB! Think the KBM manual will be coming out before the end of the year?

 

This is really interesting. Thanks a lot!

 

KB makes me want to buy a PC...

 

Thanks for the great info KB, and that is one cool way to find out stroke size....looks like it would be fun to play around with haha.

 

Thanks everyong for the kind words. The customer was very pleased with the end result.

Haha - Thanks Mr. Brown. You're right; no one could tell the difference in the final finish but they'd sure have a bunch of extra time on their hands from not having to do multiple swirl refinement steps. That, and the piece of mind knowing that there will never be buffer trails reappearing.

 

nice outcome man!

 

Wow :O is all i can say... literally....

Matt

 

Very Nice ! thanks for taking the time to explain in detail the process :headbang: Mr. Brown thank you for the additional information.:thumb:

 

holy cow! awesome job man, i dont think i would ever have the guts to sand yet =[