Wet Sanding?

[Spent Brass]

I've been doing a bit of research on the google lately. I want to wet sand my car and pull the mild orange peel look out of the clear coat so I can have that show car shine. Has anyone here done it? What grits, brands of paper, compounds, and polishes did you use? I've got a couple of rock chips on the hood as well. I think I'll try some touch up paint first then polish them in to color match. thoughts? The whole putting sand paper to paint thing makes me pretty nervous. Probably the same feeling the guys who stipple get

 

[MOTOR51]

I wet sanded mine before I painted it. I think you might ought to try a compound and buffing wheel that is made for that.

 

[Spent Brass]

yea. I'm thinking I might try compound first and if I'm not happy then go more aggressive. I just want to smooth out the clear coat. Definitely don't want to go too deep and end up needing fresh paint.

 

[MOTOR51]

Be careful if you use a high speed buffer, you can burn into the paint. The detail guys at a Toyota dealership did this to my wife's brand new Camry when we bought it.

 

[ronin1000]

I am about 95% sure that the orange peel that you are seeing is in the paint and not the clear. Sanding on it is not going to give you the look that you are shooting for. The paint would have to be wet sanded before the clear is put on over the top of it. Plus, if the car has the factory paint still on it, you have to remember that they never add more of something than they have to. So the clear on the car is not going to be very thick. If you want the paint to have a slick look, I would suggest washing the car with some Dawn about 2 or 3 times, clay bar the car, high speed compound it (if you know how and are not going to burn through the clear), high speed buff it, then a good sealer wax. Don’t get me wrong, it will take you all day or weekend, but if done right, it will look good.
That’s why it could cost like $500 to have someone do it all for ya.

 

[Storm52]

Are you sure the orange peel is with the clear coat?

 

[GunRelated]

yea. I'm thinking I might try compound first and if I'm not happy then go more aggressive. I just want to smooth out the clear coat. Definitely don't want to go too deep and end up needing fresh paint.

It would take a lot of wet sanding to go through the clear coat, unless the paint job is old and the clear is already rather thin. If you use a buffer be careful to not burn the paint, you don't want that.

 

[ronin1000]

I will just Clay my car about every 6 months and then go over it with a good wet wax. If you do that and keep up with it, it should look good and stay that way. The clay will go along way.

 

[SpeedRacer]

I will just Clay my car about every 6 months and then go over it with a good wet wax. If you do that and keep up with it, it should look good and stay that way. The clay will go along way.

This. Wet sanding is not something most people do, or should do. Mother's clay bar works awesome. If you clay, polish and wax I can't imagine needing it any shinier than that.

 

[Phill]

Light colors - start with 1200 grit
Dark color - don't sand w anything rougher than 1500 grit
Finsish sanding with 2000 grit paper. Make sure you remove all of the 1500 grit scratches.
Soak the paper in a bucket of water for 20 minutes before using.
Do not sand with your bare hand, use a sanding block.
Do not sand too close to your door handles, emblems, etc. You won't be able to get to those areas with the buffer.
Sand just a little moving the lenght of the car, not side to side.
Wipe dry, and see what turns flat.
Do not sand completely flat, leave just a tiny amount of texture.
Buff at 1400-1500 RPM with a variable speed polisher, not a grinder spinning at 7000 RPM's.
Don't even try using a random orbit polisher. It will NOT do the job.
Keep the buffer moving, or you will burn the paint if it builds up too much heat.
Make sure the buffer is spinning OFF the edges and not into the edges.

PM me if you have any more questions.

 

[Phill]

I am about 95% sure that the orange peel that you are seeing is in the paint and not the clear. Sanding on it is not going to give you the look that you are shooting for. The paint would have to be wet sanded before the clear is put on over the top of it.

FALSE

Are you sure the orange peel is with the clear coat?

Orange peel is texture that increases with each coat. A spray gun can only atomize the paint so much.

Wet sanding is not something most people do, or should do

TRUE

It would take a lot of wet sanding to go through the clear coat

Check your sandpaper as you are sanding. If color ever shows up on the sandpaper, stop immediately. When polished out, a small cut through will most likely not be seen.

 

[ronin1000]

This. Wet sanding is not something most people do, or should do. Mother's clay bar works awesome. If you clay, polish and wax I can't imagine needing it any shinier than that.

After washing all of the wax off and a good clay rub down, you may think you dont even need any wax. The paint gets very smooth and you can even look at the bar to see all of the trash that you are pulling off of good clean paint. I love my clay.

 

[Armnhammer]

I wouldnt wet sand it. You can cut as much clear as you want with a buffing compound. Just be careful not to burn through. I buffed mine years ago and it has shined like glass since. Many people dont believe its factory paint.

 

[Spent Brass]

I wouldnt wet sand it. You can cut as much clear as you want with a buffing compound. Just be careful not to burn through. I buffed mine years ago and it has shined like glass since. Many people dont believe its factory paint.

Damn, its hard to make silver pop and it looks like you've got it right. Heres a pic of my car after wash and clay bar. (mines the 06) You can kind of see the swirl marks and tiny scratches in the top of the fender. I want to get all of those out and have it looking like show paint.

 

[Armnhammer]

With a good buffer and a light compound all that should come out. Just take your time and go a little bit at a time and spread it evenly. You dont wanna buff more in one spot and less in another. I never done it before my car and i just went for it. You learn as you go. Nice GTO by the way.

 

[Spent Brass]

Thanks, I think I'll pick up one of those buffers made for it from autozone this week. I think I saw em for $30 or so. Which compound did you use? I get the car back from the drive train upgrades late this week or early next week and want it pretty for a car cruise on the 14th.

 

[Armnhammer]

I dont remember which one I used it was a while back. But I know it was a 3 step process. I done the compound and then polish. The compound does most the work and the polish step is for that glass like shine. It may have been 3M compound but im not sure.

 

[Phill]

Stick with 3M compounds and glazes/swirl mark removers, then wax by hand.
Make sure the buffer you buy is a rotary buffer that spins around 1500 RPM.
The orange one from Harbor Freight should do just fine for you.

3M Part #6085 Perfect-it Compound with a 3M Part #5737 white foam compounding pad.
Follow up with 3M #6068 Swirl Mark remover with a 3M #5738 black foam polishing pad.
Last, hand wax with 3M #39030 Performance Finish.

Now, if you want a quick fix by hand, buy some Meguiar's #7 Show Car Glaze.
It will fill in all of those light scratches and make the paint job shine like crazy.
Only problem is once it rains a few times, the product wears off and the scratches show back up.

 

[Spent Brass]

Is there a shop local that sells the higher end detailing supplies like that? I don't suppose I can just drive over to the autozone and get all that.

 

[W1nds0rF0x]

+1 on 3M, I know several detailers and that's all they use and mostly what I've used along with Dietzler. Only wet sanding I've done in years past was on lacquer and when you wet sand between all 12-18 coats it definitely starts looking like wet glass all the time.