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Actually the older, the better for wet sanding. You can clear-coat if you follow the same procedure (O.K., exclude the sealer coating) you would for applying a base-coat over an existing finish. As to process, it depends greatly on what type of paint you have on the car.
Lou, If your paint is non-metallic you can probably wet sand and buff it. If it is metallic paint it will not be able to be buffed. I would first try a spot low on the rear 1/4 panel and sand it with 1200 grit and follow with 1500 grit. You will need some heavy cut cleaner like Meguiar's 84 to bring back a shine, followed by a lighter duty polish. Of course this is done with an electric buffer. Be sure to soak the sandpaper in water for about 20-30 minutes before using. This softens the paper backing and will not be prone to gouging and scratching the paint. Good Luck, Craig :chevy
Hey Lou
You talk about orange peel, go look at the new c5s ,and there is alot of them that even has orange peel,I know you dont believe me, just check it out!!!!!!
Hey Lou
You talk about orange peel, go look at the new c5s ,and there is alot of them that even has orange peel,I know you dont believe me, just check it out!!!!!!
Very true. The guy that painted my car often fixes C5's before delivery. The big Vette dealership around here regularly has customers that refuse delivery due to excessive orange peel. He wetsands the entire car, and then polishes it back up. Takes him over a day but it sure makes 'em pretty. I had him do my '96 Camaro and he also did my Vette as part of the repaint.
Soaking the paper before hand isn't really necessary, but having a constant stream of water while you're sanding is.
Either a running hose (with the end taped to prevent scratches) or a loaded sponge resting over the area you're sanding. Even a drop of detergent in the water will help too.
And most important of all is to use a sanding block...not just your fingers.
Start with 1200 grade paper as mentioned, but depending on the finish you're after, you can go up to 2000 and more.
I used the wet sand method to remove a run (from a very poor paint job) from my car. I used a thin piece of lath with paper wrapped around the edge. Since I was trying to remove an obivous run I started with 1000 grit. Then went on to 1200, 1500, and 2000. I finished it off with Mequires clear coat compound. It did such a good job that I started trying to smooth out chips that I had filled with touch up paint. Again I was amazed, at what a good job this method did on smoothing out those filled marks. Of course the paint is slightly different color, but when the paint is at the same level and the spot only an 1/8"-1/4" in diameter, it really becomes very less evident.
This only works on non-metallic paint as one of the other guys stated.
Your level of success will depend a lot on what type of paint your dealing with.
Some of the newer urethanes cure so hard it's difficult to bring up the shine after color sanding.
Lacquer is probably the easiest to work with.
Older type straight-air dryed enamel really cannot be sanded and buffed at all.
Like someone else suggested I would try an inconspicous area first :yesnod:
I just finished wet sanding and buffing my flame orange 75. The car was sprayed with a single stage acrylic then wet sanded with 1500 grit paper. I agree that you need to use some sort of a backing against your paper, I used quarter sheets of 1500 and wrapped them around a rubber bondo spreader. The compound I used was Transtar Super Cut followed by Transtar Machine Glaze, The buffing pad was a foam pad and you can't beat it for a swirl free finish. Most good compounds will remove a 1200 grit sand scratch. If you have never color sanded a car before you have to remember that you will also be removing paint as you buff so keep that in mind when sanding, I'd hate to see you buff through the paint because you sanded to much off. Best advice is start on a low body part till you get the hang of it.
Good luck, Slide