Buffing Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy?

[tubachris85x]

I used this once before on my Rebel Fleet Trooper helmet some years ago, but this past monday, I found myself scrambling to repaint my snowtrooper commander helmet due to screwing up a simple fix. I had accidentally dropped the helmet just prior to a troop, causing the face/neck to separate from the main helmet dome. What was suppose to be a minor glue-job resulted in the CA glue (gel of all things) traveling across part of the nose bridge, ruining the finish. Since I need this helmet for a presentation this saturday to Julian Glover, I needed to fix this ASAP.

So I set it up and repainted the helmet on monday evening. The face came out nearly perfect, but the dome has some spots where it's not necessarily "bad" but bothersome to me, in that they're small/shallow depressions and other parts are not the full-gloss I'd expect. I have been doing some research on methods for buffing this paint, but those solutions appeared to vary from site to site, mostly being boating/motorcycle/automotive forums.

One test I found they actually used a polishing compound to restore the paint to it's original shine and others were more involved, wet-sanding at 1500 and 2000 grit before getting a buffer and using a wax.

So I'm not entirely sure what to do about those spots. Of course I cannot do much before the weekend since I've gotta wait till after next week, but it's something I'd like to attempt before just repainting the whole dome again.

I welcome any suggestions...thank you

-TC

 

[Dohers55]

I have a bit of experience with automotive detailing, and may be able to help. I have never tried to polish Rustoleum, but I would think compared to automotive paint, it is a soft paint, meaning polishing it may be relatively easy by hand, without powered polishing machines. That said, if you already plan to re-paint it, you have nothing to lose by trying to polish it.
When polishing paint, this goes for any paint, you want to use the least aggressive you can to get the desired results. Any polish is an abrasive, therefore the heavier the abrasive, the more material you are going to remove. Assuming the paint is soft, a product like Meguiars ScratchX will probably go a long way to improving the appearance. This product is not too expensive, and a bottle will probably last you a lifetime. That's where I would start out if I were you, with limited knowledge regarding paint correction. If that doesn't give you the desired results, then you would need to move to more aggressive steps, such as or polish or compound (more aggressive) . For polishes and compounds, I us the V series from The Chemical Guys. V32 and V34 are their compounds, V36 and V38 are their polishes.
It all depends how bad the damage is, how much money you want to spend on products and how much time you want to spend using the products.
Hope this helps, if you have any further questions, I am more than happy to go into further detail on this topic. I am by no means an expert on all of this, but I have built up many skills maintaining my own car, with excellent results. Good luck.