I found a scratch on my bumper that was there when i bought it wednesday. It is about 2 inches in total length, looks like a "J" i'm thinking it was somewone with a ring while drying it if i had a guess. I brought it in today and they have no problem fixing it, but they want to wet sand it. The car is a week old, how will wet sanding effect the longevity of paint on a car? Will it make the paint look different or kill my gloss? I want this thing to be perfect, but obviouly i'd rather have a scratch than a discolored bumper.

Think i should live with the little scratch?

 

if they can remove it wet sanding I would let them do that. If not have then spray the bumper... no biggie.. have them spray it off the car though.

 

So wet sanding doesn't really hurt anything? I'd think it would thin out the clearcoat.

 

Yeah high-end cars are wetsanded and buffed after initial painting anyway. I recently painted a set of scoops for a freind of mine and wet sanded and buffed them about a week after clearcoating them. They came out perfect.

If I were you I would even try it myself...as long as it's not on a corner or something. Use 2000 grit, then a polishing compound.

 

Just make sure it's a very fine grit, and it gets properly buffed afterward.

 

wet sanding done by a pro will do less damage to your clearcoat than a cheap claybar in the hands of a "do-it-your-selfer". I wouldn't sweat it - let the dealer do their thing.

 

800 or 2000 which one is more fine.

 

Nah i'm going to let them do it, they aren't going to charge me and if they mess it up, it's on them. It's on the flat part of the top of the bumper right under the driver's side headlight. I tried scratch X and wax, but my rule is if you can feel it with a fingernail, it's beyond autozone.

Thanks for the help, i'll just let them do it then and make sure i wax the hell out of it after i get it back. I think i'm going to order some Zaino

 

The higher the number the finer the grit. Actually, I think it goes something like the size of the grit is measured by the size of screen it can fit through, it's something like 50 grit is ~1/50th of an inch thick, 100 grit would be ~1/100th of an inch thick.

 

It really depends on how old the paint is and how deep the scratch is. If the scratch is in the clear coat and not actually in the paint, then it can be color sanded or wet sanded out. In addition, you can look usually on the side of the door or in the glove box where there is manufacturer sticker that dates the build of your vehicle. If its more than two weeks to a month old, your clear coat will have had sufficient time to cure for it to be color/wet sanded. We usually start at 6000 grit and work the way down because if you start low and catch some paint, there's no going back, but if you start high, you can always go lower if necessary.

Also something to note, the amount of clear coat varies per car and even sometimes per panel often times prevalent with orange peel making it all the more evident if it is not color sanded with extreme care, so make sure they are knowledgeable and skilled in their trade.