Dan66

Soaring and I were discussing wet sanding and various other finish-improvement techniques in a high-jacked thread (sorry Jinxed!). And I was singing the praises of wet sanding and saying how beneficial it is. And I stand by that. But just a word of caution: it's not something to be taken lightly and done on a whim. You can ruin your paint in no time if you haven't taken the time to learn the steps. (In other words, I don't want to be held accountable when everyone takes sandpaper and a garden hose to their $5000 paint jobs! [:@])

Wet sanding paper comes in many grits. The 3000 grit feels about like notebook paper, and you wonder just what good it can even do! You start with a grit that's appropriate for the level of orange peel in your paint. For me - I have a cheapie paint job on my current car, so I started with 1000 grit, and went to 1500, 2000, and finished up with 3000. Yes - it does take a long time. And if you're not carefull, you can indeed sand right through to the color coat or even primer.

The general rule of thumb when sanding your final clear coat is for the water run-off to look like milk. This indicates you're only sanding (i.e. smoothing) the clear coat. If the run-off starts to have body color - you've gone too far and will most likely have to spray that panel all over again.

Then after a successful wet sanding, you'll need to buff out the finish. The sanding leaves your beautiful paint looking like you sprayed it with a Krylon ultra-flat! You'll need an electric buffer with a series of wool and foam bonnets. And of course you'll also need some high-quality 3M rubbing compound and swirl remover. The buffer can be vicious! You may have made it past the wet sanding unscathed, only to burn a hole in your fender edge in the first minute of buffing. (A word to the wise: don't even attemp to wet sand or polish your fender edges or raised seams. You will burn through!)

For those of you that are interested in smoothing out your finish and are considering a wet sand - do yourself a favor and visit your local body shop. Ask a professional what grit sandpaper he recommends for your specific paint job. Ask what brand rubbing compounds he uses and why. When done properly, a wet sand and buffing can make the most mediocre paint job look like a mirror. But it can turn real bad, real fast. Please practice on something first. Do some online searches or visit a Barnes&Noble for an instruction book.

And as I was saying earlier - if you paint was wet sanded years ago (or maybe even never), give a clay bar system a try. As far as I know, there's no risk at all of burning through paint or causing any damage. It smooths out paint to the touch and readies it for a wax job. Plus, you can get the whole car finished in a day. Good luck to everyone - and do your homework!

Soaring

Yeah, like I said on the other thread, I am going to prctice on my beater car before I even attempt it on my Mustang. I may even practice on two cars first.

1970 mach1

Myself I won't touch a rubbing wheel. I leave that to the experts, for $150.00 bucks I take it to a professional shop that has been doing show cars for 45 Years. The place is called Roger Pentingtons Collision. They touch up all nicks and scratches rub car out and give me a bottle of touch up paint that has been matched with a computer color spectrum annualizer. Matchs paint perfectly. I'll wet sand but I know my limitations I will never use a rubbing wheel. There are people who have years of experence with a wheel that still now and then screw up a good paint job. This is my insurance if a boo-boo happens they fix it not me.

Soaring

Well, the guys who renovated my body would probably do that too. Thanks for giving me the idea. I'll run it by their shop this summer and have a chat with them.

1970 mach1

They will probably do it for a lot cheaper than what I payed. When I bought the mach last spring the stang was almost chalk white with a blue tint, from sitting with no cleaning or wax on it. I rubbed the paint with a little spit on my finger and said to myself oh grabber blue too Kool, I don't think I have to paint it right away. I just got to have it rubbed out. Turned out great.

Soaring

Man, it sure did. You have a show winner Bob.

ivanr77

I'm just getting into wet sanding on my car soon. Finishing up the blocking part right now...although you described it a little differently. I'll be wet sanding my primer so that i can paint, but of course...depending on how well i paint i may still have to wet sand the orange peel out.... and you guys are right, you can easily ruin your paint job if you don't know what you're doing. It's a very meticoulous job and patience helps.

Although paying someone to buff your car out may be a good idea, i would rather do it myself because i can actually watch and do things as i would to my own car...a shop will just treat you as another paying customer.

Soaring

I guess it depends on the shop, but a reputable shop will do a professional job for all its' customers. And since many of us don't have the trained and practiced skills to wet sand a 5000 dollar paint job, it is no wonder that we are reluctant to take sandpaper to our new paint.

ivanr77

And thats perfectly understandable...way i see it, if you have money to buy a 5k paintjob, you have money to afford a nice reputable shop to work on your paintjob...but if youre dirt poor like me you learn how to do it yourself =P

Soaring

And, that is perfectly understandable too. Many guys do it themselves. All power to them. Now, If I were to start out with a rust bucket, and replaced all the rusted out components myself, and painted the car myself, I would be willing to sand the paint job that I did myself. Simply because if I screwed up with the wet sanding, I could always go back and re-spray and start over again, and keep doing it until I got it right. But, for those who have no painting skills or the equipment to do it, it just makes more monetary sense to have a pro do it.