Thanks man.
Practice makes perfect. This type of painting would probably not turn out perfectly for anyone on their first attempt so don’t worry about it.
Just be sure to never move on to the next step until total flatness is achieved because as you learned any imperfections will show in the final product.
I’ve painted many cars like that and it gives a nice deep gloss. Of course it might be overkill to some but there are many different ways to do a nice paint job. And after wetsanding with 1000 if there are no spots you can go ahead and buff the surface to bring out the shine. Use a non-abrasive or super fine compound. Just remember to let the paint cure before doing so or the paint will no adhere properly and come off while buffing.
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to do this tut. I’m currently on my second coat stage. I sanded the first coat today and now i must wait my 3 days. I cut in the primer a bit on some spots. Hopefully when i sand out the second coat i wont cut through. Or i may just go for a 3rd coat. I definitely learned a lot from your tut and I know when i make some more sticks in the future they will look even nicer. I will post some picks by august 2nd.
I assume you are using a high quality spray gun to paint cars correct? If so that’s why you can use a finer grit and skip the lower grades. With spray cans you get a ton of the orange peel texture, which is why sanding with 600 first is needed. Even so I still wouldn’t use your technique. It might work out great, but it just doesn’t make sense to me.
Good luck man, and above all, BE PATIENT!! 
Wow I’m super impressed. I never realized that Mdf could be painted to a mirror finish like that.
Great job man and thanks for the writeup I’m going to try to paint my garage cabinets now
Is there any difference in the step for polishing up clear coat when it’s on plastic instead of mdf? I can’t see why there would be, but before I was directed to this thread I did roughly the same thing and COMPLETELY failed… The weird thing is I did way more coats of clear coat (probably about 8-10 coats, and did 2 passes per coat), yet I sanded for probabaly about 30-45 seconds during the 600 grit wet/dry sanding step before I started realizing that I had worn down to the paint. I DID use pressure which I didn’t realize I was supposed to do, but the OP said he was sanding for about an hour. It’s hard to believe that the difference between sanding for an hour and 30 seconds would just be the amount of pressure I put on it, so I have to imagine I did something else wrong…
The second time I tried, I skipped the 600 grit and just tried to do 1000-1500. I didn’t wear down to the paint that time, but all I was left with was a kind of hard water mildew stain looking effect (kind of like in the picture he posted here http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n164/DigitalShaolin/lastcolorsanded.jpg). That made it hard to tell if my sanding wasn’t done yet or what- but Just stopped cuz I didn’t want to wear down to the paint again…
after that I just tried polishing it with some Mother’s plastic polish, but all I was left was a fairly smooth but very dull finish- and I could still see the tiny scratches of sand paper… Looked worse than before I started. Really wish I could figure out what I’m diong wrong, cuz it doesn’t seem like the steps here are much different than what I tried.
There is one thing this guide omits. You must have an absolutely, perfectly flat surface before you put on the color coat. If there are minor imperfections (tiny valleys and pits) in the surface, you will not be able to wet sand these areas and thus, your paint job will look bad in places. Make it absolutely smooth before you paint!
Great Thread. Just finished my first prime coat on my very first case. I can’t wait to see what this looks like when it’s finished. 
Also do you really have to wait 30 days after the clear coat before using the case? I know i’m going to have a hard time waiting. lol
Thanks!!
This is too good Gonna start testing today with a piece of mdf, kinda wonder how this method would work with poplar as well.
**Digital- **Typically I apply a bit of bondo here and there after priming a case to hide the joint seams before applying a color coat. Should I switch to the spackling when using your process or will the bondo work as well ?
Big Ups for taking time to put this worklog together!!
I almost forgot about this thread. Haha.
Yeah if you don’t wait 30 days the paint won’t be fully cured and your risk if scratching/chipping it off is much higher. Wait it out it will be worth it.
Bondo is great stuff. It would work at least as good if not better than what I used. Typically it’s applied before the primer though. I’m not sure why you would want to do it after priming. Anyways I’m glad some of you are finding this guide useful.
Goddamn man you spent more time on that block of MDF than most people do on their entire car. People always think their is some short cut or quick fix but the truth of the matter is time and elbow grease produces results.
lol, for ME time and elbow grease completely sanded off my clear coat… 
I suck at this, I need more practice.
Good deal
I usually do the bondo after the first coat of primer. Reason for me is once primed a few spots may need a bit of bondo and a few won’t . The prime helps me spot the imperfections/pores in the wood/mdf. Once the bondo is applied I’ll throw another coat of primer to get a uniform finish before color painting.
Haha. Thanks man, and yes this process is incredibly time consuming. If it’s possible I wouldn’t even suggest doing it with rattle cans because of how time intensive it is. I would recommend investing in a high quality spray gun instead.
Is this process even worth attempting on particle board? I have an old stick made from a shelf piece (crappy wood grain veneer and all) I want to scrape off the veneer, sand it smooth, apply bondo or wood putty, then began the process.
Is this even worth attempting, or should I just replicate my shelf stick using MDF instead?
Hard to say. If that piece you have is as flat as MDF go ahead and do it, but if it’s not don’t bother. Any tiny little variation in surface flatness will show up very plainly when you do a mirror finish like this. I wouldn’t want you to waste so much time and effort only to come out with imperfections caused by unevenness.
great thread man…
i just ordered a MDF case, so this’ll be coming in very handy soon.
just curious…can a paint job look good if it not a mirror finish? or is it gonna be dull.
cuase i don’t think i’ll have the patience to do all these steps
If you make sure your MDF is completely smooth as he illustrates in this thread then you can just apply a few coats of glossy paint and it will still look good.
