How do I get rid of 180 grit sand scratches

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Harvey02

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Someone side swiped my black car and scratched it up. I was able to get most of the scratches out with a little compound, but there were some more that I couldn't get out. Plus the other car left a 1 foot line dent in my front door. I tried wet sanding with 180 grit, noob mistake, and although it removed the scratches, it left my paint looking horrible. I tried going over it with 500 then 800 then meguires 150 and polish but it still looks horrible. When the car is dry, the paint has a white tint in the places I sanded, and I can see all the sanding scratches. Any ideas on what to do next? Thanks!
 
180? That's a grit used for wood sanding.

Coupled with the dent, it's body shop time my man.

And, welcome to AGO. :)
 
Thanks for the reply!

As for the dent, I don't mind that it's there. It's long and very thin. If I can somehow get the scratches out I would be ok with it. Not looking for a show car look, just want it to look normal. Any tips?
 
The white tint is your clear coat unpolished. 800 grit is not enough to finish down. Hopefully you did not compromise the clear coat. If not, try 1000, 2000 and finish with 3000 grit. Compound and polish.
 
Ya I know I know lol ��

I saw someone online write that I should do that - before I found this forum...
 
The problem is that the method to remove 180 grit scratches is gonna remove too much clear coat. You would have to sand with 320 then 600 then 1200 then 2000 then compound.

I would go to a bodyshop and see if they can spray clear on that area so you can sand it down. You could also to it yourself if you know what you are doing. It's not gonna be an easy fix no matter how you look at it.
 
Harvey now you know next time post a pic on here. who knows maybe some of those scratches would have buffed out. using 180 grit paper you could probably get the scratch out from the other side of the car. sorry had to throw that out there. good luck. put a picture out there.
hmardown
 
No more needs said about using 180 grit but FWIW I don't go less than 800 and even then it's rare.

It may not matter now but honestly I don't sand at all with doing measurements. Without a tool such as a thickness gauge it's a big gamble. Good luck to you.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8 using Tapatalk
 
I say at this point you may want to just polish it and see how it see how it looks after that. Just trying to get gloss back to it to make it less noticeable.

Depending on how much you sanded with it, I would be concerned with how much clear is left there. Trying to completely remove the sanding scratches now may bring you dangerously close to the base layer paint which you may already be very close to.

If you see black paint showing up on your polish applicator, you have gone through the clear coat.
 
Harvey02 said:
Someone side swiped my black car and scratched it up. I was able to get most of the scratches out with a little compound, but there were some more that I couldn't get out. Plus the other car left a 1 foot line dent in my front door.

I tried wet sanding with 180 grit, noob mistake, and although it removed the scratches, it left my paint looking horrible.

I tried going over it with 500 then 800 then meguires 150 and polish but it still looks horrible.

When the car is dry, the paint has a white tint in the places I sanded, and I can see all the sanding scratches.

Any ideas on what to do next?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Wow!


First sorry to hear of the hit-and-run. It's so hard to own anything nice in this world due to all the dregs of society. Makes me always want to have a beater car just so it won't bother me when some bottom feeder door-dings me or worse. This is in part one of the reasons I've almost always owned monster trucks. The idea being to get the body so high that no one could door-ding me.


Back to your predicament.... like most have said, it's probably time to get this area repainted. The thing you have working against you is that factory paint is thin. See my article here,


Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips


My guess is the #180 grit sandpaper easily ripped through the factory clear and past the basecoat. If this is the case - it's game over.


:)
 
Mike Phillips said:
This is in part one of the reasons I've almost always owned monster trucks. The idea being to get the body so high that no one could door-ding me.
Click to expand...

LOL! I noticed you posted in another thread about your 6 British sports cars and wondered how you got from that to the giant trucks you have had more recently...I guess that explains it!
 
Harvey02 said:
I should spray clear BEFORE sanding?
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Yes.

If you still have clear left, it's very likelly too thin to fix. If you can re-clear the area, then you will have plenty of clear to work with. Talk to a painter at a body shop and see what he tells you. He will probably have to sand with 400 grit to re-clear, but it should be doable. Since there isn't much prep work needed it should not be that expensive either.

Again, the best thing would be to talk to a painter at a bodyshop and explain your predicament.
 
I had a scrap panel that I attempted to remove 100 grit marks. I wore the clear off before they were removed. They didn't gouge into the primer, but did into the base coat.
 
dlc95 said:
I had a scrap panel that I attempted to remove 100 grit marks. I wore the clear off before they were removed. They didn't gouge into the primer, but did into the base coat.
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Yes. I am not surprised. These are very deep scratches. I have sanded paint off body pannels before in order to re-paint and it doesn't take much effort with low grit papers like 80-180 to remove all the paint.
 
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