the penultimate step... 3200 grit

next payday begets drill and buffer kit :)

further along... hand sanded to 3200, then tried buffing with Plastx using a lambswool buffer pad on an orbital sander

shows promise from a few feet away, but the orbital doesn't generate enough heat to get rid of the scratches, plus there was an unevenness to the whole process, as i started using leftover sandpaper, switched to 3M for the 1000 and 2000, then Micro Mesh 2400 and 3200

so decided to go for the heavy hitters:

http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/mmr_discs.htm

and the Meguiars kit

onwards and upwards, using only machinery for consistency.... 5000 opms on the sander, water with one drop of dish soap, and a flannel cloth for wiping

each sanding direction perpendicular to the previous one... 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200

with these discs, you're not really "sanding" so much as "scratching in even intervals"; the earlier hand-sanding is where any surface damage/deep gouges are removed/levelled/de-emphasized

there are still a couple of dents left, but watcha gonna do?

4000, then 6000, and a bottom-panel shot where the drum sits on the floor

i left it alone, for comparison purposes later to see contrast, and also to see if its feasible to fade into existing wrap... doing a whole drum is pretty time-consuming, but hopefully this could be a feasible means to do spot repairs just on bad scrapes and gashes; being on the bottom, it'll probably just end up getting more scuffs anyway

where i'm at currently... wanted to see if i could skip the last two grits, 8000 and 12000 and just go directly to the Plastx and buffer pad

you could reasonably stop here, as there are very faint honeycomb-shaped scratches that you need to be about 4 inches away from to even see... but to get there, some pretty serious effort with the drill/pad/Plastx is needed

going to do the last two today... the Micro Mesh guys claim to give a full polished surface if you run the whole set of discs

we'll see...

Very nice and boy that's a lot of work. But you'll get a beautiful finish. Cool1

DOON!

couldn't really maintain or achieve a mirror gloss, probably because there's no new coat film buildup, just refining of the surface, but it came out pretty good

if i have to do it again, i might not start out at such an aggressive grit to begin with, and use machinery from the get-go... a little more consistent that way