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Appreciation post: That old timer at the paint booth who yelled at me about sanding
I was at a shop in Portland last summer and this guy in his 60s just starts yelling at me across the floor about how I was sanding too fast on a door panel. I almost got pissed off at first. But then he walked over and showed me how my grit sequence was skipping too many steps and how I was going to burn through the clear on the edges. He said 'you can't rush the paper, kid, the metal ain't going anywhere.' I stood there for 20 minutes watching him do a quarter panel. Dude was slow as hell but the finish was like glass. I took his advice and honestly my work got way cleaner after that. Has anyone else had some grumpy old painter drop knowledge on them that actually stuck?
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luna_kim403mo ago
The metal ain't going anywhere" is one of those lines that just sticks with you lol. That old timer was right about the grit stepping. I had a similar moment when a crusty bodyman grabbed my hand and made me feel how fast the paper was loading up. He told me to slow down and let the grit do the cutting, not my arm speed. Now I block sand by feel instead of just going through motions and my panels lay down way flatter.
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the_blair3mo ago
Let the grit do the cutting" is something I repeated to myself for like a month after hearing it lol. I used to sand so hard it looked like I was trying to beat the panel into submission. My arms would be burning and the paper would be shot in like two passes. Now I mostly just let the block do the work with slow, even strokes. It feels way less like a workout and more like I'm actually helping the paint, you know?
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