Help with wet sanding

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twistedframe

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So I have wet sanded several times with great results when it comes to removing scrathes, RIDS etc. However I have a car to play with that has loads of orange peel after a crappy Macco repaint. I have started to do some sanding and was wondering a few things

1. Wet sanding small scratches by hand is no problem, but it will take forever to go over this whole vehicle. What do you guys use to speed up the process? DA sander, palm sander?

2. What wet sanding paper do you prefer? I've been using 3m stuff from Lowes with pretty good results.

3. What steps would you use? 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 or 1500, 2500, 3000?

Thanks in advance for any info and I appreciate any other tips you all might have.

It's really hard to capture on this color, but the left side is untouched and the right side is done 1500, 2000, 2500 then SIP via yellow pad on PC.

DSC_0264-1.jpg


Also I have a Nissan frontier that is COVERED in orange peel and it is black so it shows up alot. It is the factory paint, so can I even attempt to fix this issue? It annoys me to no end, but I don't want to mess it up.
 
You want to machine sand, actually damp-sand...

Faster overall
Les buffing
Leave more paint on the car
Buff cooler, better for the clear coat
Less work


I just finished my Power Point Presentation for this weekend's class which is,

Machine Damp Sanding & Machine Polishing

We'll be going over everything you want to do.



Hang on....



:D
 
 
Hey Dave, let me know and I can come by and show you or help you with wet sanding.
 
You can also dry sand it with a D.A. I usually use 1000-1500-2000. Wetsanding is definitely an art. Just make sure that you can polish every area that you sand. It's not worth polishing a tiny little area if you can't polish it out properly. Best of luck.


John
 
ASPHALT ROCKET said:
Hey Dave, let me know and I can come by and show you or help you with wet sanding.
Click to expand...

Very cool of you Dana!

I'd takes his Si out and do some burnouts in exchange though! :D


J/K Twisted!



I've been happy with the 3M Trizact sanding disks but I will also be trying out the Mirka Abralon system on a car next week....4000 grit should buff out like a breeze! :props:
 
detailjohn said:
You can also dry sand it with a D.A. I usually use 1000-1500-2000. Wetsanding is definitely an art. Just make sure that you can polish every area that you sand. It's not worth polishing a tiny little area if you can't polish it out properly. Best of luck.


John
Click to expand...

The Rule of Thumb

First, here's a tip when it comes to sanding paint by hand or machine...

Don't sand where you cannot safely machine compound.


The reason for this is because if you sand right up to an edge or up to a raised body line, it's difficult to run a buffing pad up to the end of your sanding marks and not buff on top of the body line or edge and risk burning through the topcoat.

Even if you're extremely careful it's all to easy to accidentally run the pad onto the edge and it only takes a few seconds to generate enough heat and abrasive sanding or cutting action to eat through the paint on a high point and expose the color coat, primer or even sheet metal underneath.

Remember paint will tend to be thinner on high points as wet paint, (when being sprayed), will flow off a little more than paint sprayed onto a flat panel.

So a good practice is to only sand where you can safely machine compound or another way of saying this is to not sand where you cannot safely machine compound.


The Rule of Thumb
The rule of thumb I use is with my thumb, mostly because I always have it with me. :D

I use the distance from the tip of my thumb to the end of my thumbnail, which I just measured and it's about 3/4 of an inch and that's about how far away I stay from edges and raised body lines when I sand by hand or machine.

Actually a 1/2" is a pretty good rule of thumb the bigger idea is to not sand paint where you cannot safely buff with a wool pad, a cutting compound with a rotary buffer.

This is a technique I teach in our wet-sanding classes to give students a simple method or a simple guideline they can use to know just how far to sand when sanding near a hard body line or the edge of a panel. This is a simple technique that works for me but feel free to come up with your own method.


How to sand right up to an edge and remove your sanding marks by hand
There is a fix for this now with M105 Ultimate Compound because it's aggressive enough you can easily remove sanding marks by hand if you're willing to put a little passion behind the pad.


From this thread... post #15

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/off-topic/23776-offline-today-tomorrow-2.html

Note: The blue line you see in the pictures below is vinyl tape applied over the top of a body line to make it easy to see and protect it.


Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Also took some pictures to show you can remove sanding marks by hand if you don't mind putting a little passion behind the pad...


RemvovingSandingMarksbyHand01.jpg


RemvovingSandingMarksbyHand02.jpg



This can come in real hand if you want to be extra careful around a raised body line, especially if it's not your car...
Click to expand...


The Rule of Thumb



:)
 
RaskyR1 said:
Very cool of you Dana!

I'd takes his Si out and do some burnouts in exchange though! :D


J/K Twisted!



I've been happy with the 3M Trizact sanding disks but I will also be trying out the Mirka Abralon system on a car next week....4000 grit should buff out like a breeze! :props:
Click to expand...
LOL you guys can come abuse my Si anytime you want. It'll make it easier for me to convince myself to buy a new car!

I was looking that those 3m disks too Rasky, and will probably invest in some to get in some practice. :xyxthumbs:
 
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