Anyone sand and buff their factory paint?

[Monkeyleg]

I'm just curious if anyone here has wet-sanded and buffed out their factory paint to get a glossier finish. The last sports/performance car I had was a '69 Jag XKE that I did a ground up restoration on. I did everything, including the black lacquer paint. I spent about nine months block-sanding the primer surfacer coats by hand before I even shot the color coat. In the end the finish was like a mirror and everyone thought I'd spent five figures on the paint job. Anyway, I look at the finish on my redfire metallic GT, and it could be better. I just wonder if there's enough clear coat on the car to sand. Thanks for any replies.

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[Shadow7874]

Originally Posted by Monkeyleg

I'm just curious if anyone here has wet-sanded and buffed out their factory paint to get a glossier finish.

The last sports/performance car I had was a '69 Jag XKE that I did a ground up restoration on. I did everything, including the black lacquer paint. I spent about nine months block-sanding the primer surfacer coats by hand before I even shot the color coat.

In the end the finish was like a mirror and everyone thought I'd spent five figures on the paint job.

Anyway, I look at the finish on my redfire metallic GT, and it could be better. I just wonder if there's enough clear coat on the car to sand.

Thanks for any replies.

If you have a good buffer you should be ok. I wet sanded a spot on my hood only to find out that the cheap buffer my dad had wouldnt spin fast enough to take our the scratches the 2k grit put in. But there seems to be enough clear for light sanding atleast, i seem to recall pascal saying it would take a good bit to get through the clear

[pascal]

Originally Posted by Shadow7874

i seem to recall pascal saying it would take a good bit to get through the clear

I meant, as not to burn through the edges when buffing.

I would not recomend to wet sand your OEM paint job.
I will shorten the life of it considerably, and if you live in a sunny part of the country, like I am here (FL), it will fade quick...

[Shadow7874]

Originally Posted by pascal

I meant, as not to burn through the edges when buffing.

I would not recomend to wet sand your OEM paint job.
I will shorten the life of it considerably, and if you live in a sunny part of the country, like I am here (FL), it will fade quick...

Well there you go, couldnt you just clear coat it again though? before it fades that is

[pascal]

Originally Posted by Shadow7874

Well there you go, couldnt you just clear coat it again though? before it fades that is

Yeah, but it ain't cheap.

[smokestang]

Originally Posted by pascal

I meant, as not to burn through the edges when buffing.

I would not recomend to wet sand your OEM paint job.
I will shorten the life of it considerably, and if you live in a sunny part of the country, like I am here (FL), it will fade quick...

+100 on what pascal said! theres not enough paint or clearcoat on modern factory paint jobs for any errors. the factory doesnt waste a drop of paint these days, and if you dont know what your doing you can ruin your paint real fast.

[GM EATER]

Had a couple of small scratches on my Saleen and used some 4000 paper and some colored compound (turtle wax) to get into the scratch and used some light polishing compound ( a quick light rub!) and just as new. Just be careful you don't rub too hard! You will take off the clearcoat easy. An old auto body trick.

[Monkeyleg]

Thanks for the replies. If the clear is that thin, I'd need to put more on, and I don't have anyplace to shoot paint anymore. I guess I'll just live with it.

Getting the kind of finish I had on the Jag took more than just buffing. It's the hours and hours of hand sanding that makes a finish look like glass.