Thinking of wet sanding my whole car - advice wanted

Booki said:
Any particular reason why I would be asking for trouble?

The fact I might sand too far is the only cause for concern?
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Good question, fair question...


First read my article here and I explain in detail the topic of wetsanding paint...


Wetsanding - Fresh Paint vs Factory Paint


And here's the deal...

  1. Sanding removes paint
  2. Compounding removes paint
  3. Polishing removes paint
Factory paint is both thin and harder than re-paints, (generally speaking), it's easy to sand paint, that's putting scratches into the paint, the tricky part is getting them 100% out.

Some people, perhaps yourself are not concerned with removing 100% of the sanding marks, I tend to be held to a higher standard, so 100% is my goal and standard.

At some point, chances are really good you'll make a mistake and by this I mean you'll ever sand through the clear layer or buff through the clear layer. Now it's time to visit a body shop.


I've been there and done this and made the mistake and paid to have a hood repainted. It doesn't really matter how good you are, the odds are stacked against you. This means, thin paint and hard paint. Bad odds.

If this is a daily driver, then buff it out and remove as many defects as you can and then learn to live with the rest as chances are good you're going to get more scratches and other defects into the future and you can't continually compound or even sand each time you want to remove all the defects.

At the same time... it's your car, do as you will. My job is to give you some sound advise.


Also keep in mind all the UV protection for the basecoat and for the paint as a whole is in the clear coat. The more clear you remove, the less UV protection, the greater the risk for clear coat failure. This is especially true for someone that lives in an area with intense sun rays.


Read this article,

Beginning Clearcoat Failure



Booki said:
I am looking at getting more and more into panel beating/detailing/spraying etc and this car is my second car (daily). I am not super fussed about how it turns out, more wanting to learn then anything....that said I don't want to ruin it if i can avoid it
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Two suggestions...

1. Get a junker panel and practice on it first. After you get some experience and feel more confident with your skills then move onto your car.

2. If you do sand on you car, limit yourself to a single panel. That way if you make a mistake it's limited to this single panel.
​

And do get a rotary buffer, a good wool cutting pad and a good compound. Make removing sanding marks as easy as possible on yourself.


Hope that helps...



:)
 
Thanks fellas, I think at this stage you guys have well and truely talked me out of sanding my whole car.

I am looking at a foam wool pad which worked great on the first car I polished, but ended up deteriorating half way through the car and fell apart. I think the foam wool pad will remove my defects and is alot less harsh on the paint then wet sanding.
 
If its a skill you really want to learn, it is worth taking the time to do it. Junk panels are a great way to learn, just like Mike said. If you really don't care much about the car. Go at it.

I was thrown to the wolves and had to learn in a very high pace body shop. I never had the chance on junk panels. I had to do a lot of sanding on factory paint, because my boss was really o.c.d. and had us sand orange peel off of factory paint.

I hated having to do it, but he was psychotic and you could not dispute anything he said. Needless to say, I burned through my share of paint. He would lose his mind when we would burn through. Subaru paint seemed to be the thinnest.
 
Ha ha, Well truth be told when i was wet sanding a small part of my car, i had sanded too much and exposed a bit of the door handle :P ha ha...ah well, #### happens.

Found a pic on my phone on what I am dealing with, its a shitty picture but will snap some when I remember and the lighting is good.
 
Booki said:
Ha ha, Well truth be told when i was wet sanding a small part of my car, i had sanded too much and exposed a bit of the door handle :P ha ha...ah well, #### happens.
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Funny Stuff Dude !!! :laughing:
 
Truth be told I would be in tears weeping on the ground of it was my other car!

But this one is the daily and I am willing to try new stuff on it to learn :)
Worst case, if it all goes pear shaped...looks like I will be learning to paint on it ha ha!
 
I wet sanded my car and exposed something too... a reflection!
 
Booki said:
Truth be told I would be in tears weeping on the ground of it was my other car!

But this one is the daily and I am willing to try new stuff on it to learn :)
Worst case, if it all goes pear shaped...looks like I will be learning to paint on it ha ha!
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Fuuny stuff again !!! Your alright in my book :xyxthumbs:

erichaley said:
I wet sanded my car and exposed something too... a reflection!
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Amen :dblthumb2:
 
If only this car didn't have a metallic/pearl through it....I would so be painting it in rustoleum lololol
 
Booki said:
Ha ha, Well truth be told when i was wet sanding a small part of my car, i had sanded too much and exposed a bit of the door handle :P ha ha...ah well, #### happens.

Found a pic on my phone on what I am dealing with, its a shitty picture but will snap some when I remember and the lighting is good.
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This is exactly why I told you not to. :nomore: :bash:
 
Ha ha ill post a pic up of the damage...least now I know door handles, specially plastic ones do not have alot of paint on them ;)
 
I wouldn't wetsand a whole car without using a paint thickness gauge first.
 
Considering this forum is OCD on parade (myself included, they don't call it DETAILING for nothing), I think you have to be realistic about what you want to do and what the vehicle is being used for. If its a daily driver, I'd want to preserve as much clear as possible so I have room for more correction as needed later. Show car, different story. Less washes equates to less chance of swirls etc. so maybe it is worth the loss of film.

Wet sanding is going to eat up a lot of clear and takes a lot of finesse to get right. If you have already burned a door handle, the creases could get pretty sporty. If it is a daily driver, I'd try some polish/pad combinations first to see if you can get close to what you want and then coat it.
 
I just ordered the lake country purple pad (think its a wool/foam type) and a generic wool pad...will see how i go with those pads once they come in.

I recken they should get me in a good place with minimal eating of clear.

But who knows, Im still very noob at it all....I got good results on my GTR, removed 99% of swirls and just use polish and a purple lake country type pad.
 
If you must wet sand, try the CarPro denim pads instead. I have had incredible results on removing the orange peel on my car. Yes, I've read the warnings, I have a PTG, and I'm prepared for the worst. The denim pads on a DA are roughly equivalent to the velvet pads on a rotary. You'll need a bunch of pads as they seem to get chewed up on a DA (they weren't designed for a DA, do I don't fault them for it). The trick is to work at a speed of about 4 with barely enough pressure to hold the machine to the surface. In fact, you almost need to lift up on it.
 
To add to my previous post, too much pressure or to high a speed will glaze up the pad very quickly, and the pad will be doing nothing but skipping across the paint until you clean it.
 
Rayaz said:
Considering this forum is OCD on parade (myself included, they don't call it DETAILING for nothing), I think you have to be realistic about what you want to do and what the vehicle is being used for. If its a daily driver, I'd want to preserve as much clear as possible so I have room for more correction as needed later. Show car, different story. Less washes equates to less chance of swirls etc. so maybe it is worth the loss of film.
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That's funny....


"Considering this forum is OCD on parade"


:laughing:


The rest of your post is dead on about balancing what you do and what you don't do to a daily drivers.




erichaley said:
If you must wet sand, try the CarPro denim pads instead. I have had incredible results on removing the orange peel on my car. Yes, I've read the warnings, I have a PTG, and I'm prepared for the worst. The denim pads on a DA are roughly equivalent to the velvet pads on a rotary. You'll need a bunch of pads as they seem to get chewed up on a DA (they weren't designed for a DA, do I don't fault them for it). The trick is to work at a speed of about 4 with barely enough pressure to hold the machine to the surface. In fact, you almost need to lift up on it.
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erichaley said:
To add to my previous post, too much pressure or to high a speed will glaze up the pad very quickly, and the pad will be doing nothing but skipping across the paint until you clean it.
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Good stuff their Eric, maybe consider writing an article on this topic...



:xyxthumbs:
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
That's funny....


"Considering this forum is OCD on parade"


:laughing:


The rest of your post is dead on about balancing what you do and what you don't do to a daily drivers.









Good stuff their Eric, maybe consider writing an article on this topic...



:xyxthumbs:
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Thanks Mike! I do plan on writing an article on this once I'm completed. It's been a very time-consuming process, and I'm only about halfway done...
 
Booki said:
Ha ha ill post a pic up of the damage...least now I know door handles, specially plastic ones do not have alot of paint on them ;)
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Booki said:
I just ordered the lake country purple pad (think its a wool/foam type) and a generic wool pad...will see how i go with those pads once they come in.

I recken they should get me in a good place with minimal eating of clear.

But who knows, Im still very noob at it all....I got good results on my GTR, removed 99% of swirls and just use polish and a purple lake country type pad.
Click to expand...

LOL Bet you won't make that mistake again LOL

Friend reqeust sent ! :dblthumb2:
 
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