180/210 Tank Stand

[BizTodd]

I’m looking to sand/buff/polish a tank too, did you use all 3 novus steps? what did you think of the results?
did you do both inside and outside panels?
did you use an orbital sander for the sanding? what paint did you use ?

I went sanded from 400 to 2000 grit sandpaper, then used step 2 only to actually polish it. My tank was in bad shape when I got it and needed the sanding, not just polishing.

I did not do the inside, it was just too big and the opening too small. I thought it came out well enough.

 

[ryanmfk]

Thanks for the info - did you sand by hand or with a power tool?

 

[BizTodd]

I used a 1/4 sheet palm sander (Big Mistake), it left huge scratches. Switched to a Random Orbital (Much Better) and I polished with Mothers polishing ball in a power drill.

 

[Oughtsix]

I’m looking to sand/buff/polish a tank too, did you use all 3 novus steps? what did you think of the results?
did you do both inside and outside panels?
did you use an orbital sander for the sanding? what paint did you use ?

I bought a used 180g and refurbed it. Mine was a bit rougher than yours so I started with 800 grit sand paper, then 1200g, then 1600, then the Novus.

I started with a random orbit sander of good quality but found it VERY slow. I ended up buying a rotary wet sander made for polishing stone and that saved me tons of time! Just a little trickle of water coming out from the middle of the pad cleaned the swarf out of the sand papers and made them much more effective. A little trickle of water coming out of the middle of the polishing pad kept the Novus polishes moist and kept them from heating up which allowed for more pressure and much faster polishing. I used a different pad for Novus 3 and Novus 2. Novus 1 is more of a thin watery wax with no grit in it that I just used a microfiber towel to apply.

I did the inside and the outside of my 180g. The inside is the hardest part by far but is also the part that I can't touch up when the tank is filled and in use. The wet polisher is what really made polishing the inside possible (for me). The outside went MUCH faster. I rotated the tank for each side so the side I was working on was horizontal (I also did this for the inside of the tank). I even did this with the two small ends. Working on a horizontal surface is much quicker and I got a much more uniform polish than when I tried to work on the sides of the tank when they were vertical.