The urethane is Arm-R-Seal ... about 15 coats ... throughout the entire process. The final five coats are in the paint booth ... the final finishing coat gets:
sanded with 600, 1000 and 2000 Sungold finishing disks ... then the magic starts ... and the sore arms.
Brasso (yes ... the metal polish ... it is great for removing the fine marks of the 2000 grit sand paper) ... five times each side with five shining passes each (same with all of the following) ... this leaves a perfect matte finish ... if that is what the customer wants then I'm done.
Menzerna IP 2000 (five and five again) ... leaves a semi-gloss ...
Menzerna SF 4500 (five and five) ... a flawless piano gloss finish.
But here is the problem ... all of these steps are done by hand with an old t-shirt ... every attempt at a mechanical solution leaves squiggly marks in the finish ...
It takes about four hours ... after I'm done my arm feels like I've been doing bad things to myself all day long.
I got the idea from Tom Moynahan at General Finishes when he told me about his restore of a Rolls-Royce ... it required 23 coats of hand polished lacquer ...