After 50 years of waiting and saving, I've finally own my first Vette. It's a Pewter 98 hatchback and I'm as happy as a clam. Except for the paint finish. In my youth, I served my time in auto body repair but since then technology has advanced by leaps and bounds.
With past experience and much up-dating I have the desired results in my factory paint.
Much of my research drew me back to a fellow named "Junk Man". Even though he doesn't explain wet sanding, that is where my journey started.
With that said, "DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH" before you start.
The basics and process that "Junk" uses will yield amazing results for the DIY.
Personally I don't believe that he is reimbursed from the products which he uses. If he does, so be it. However ,again, the results are great.
One must watch the process many times on YOUTUBE.CON/JUNKMAN2000 and the video's are free.

 

He posts here and is extremely helpful. I enjoy his videos and all the money he has saved me on towels recently

 

Check out Chadwick's Triple Play....Not sure how bad your finish is but this stuff is a game changer...I just ordered an extra gallon.

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

 

JUNKMAN's tutorials are very good. Nice to have the resource base this forum offers.

 

Congrat's on getting your dream car -- I know exactly how you feel!!
Love that Pewter!!
Some much great information shared on the forum!!
There are some fantastic products out there to restore our paint back to health!!
Good luck!!

 

Junkman has a great series of Detailing Videos! As I recall he touched on "why" he was wet sanding.

There are two main reasons IMO to engage in wet sanding:

(1) You have a "deep" scratch(s) in the clear coat that using a random orbital polisher either won't remove or would take forever.

(2) You want to remove "orange peel" surface roughness.

I personally can live with the factory orange peel that most Corvettes have; therefore I have NEVER wet sanded my C5 in 14 years; however, I have used an RO routine on my car twice a year in detailing.

There are three reasons I have not wet sanded my car:

(1) This is my daily driver and I need all the clear coat thickness (protection) I can maintain as long as possible.

(2) I don't own a paint depth measuring device (they are VERY EXPENSIVE) and without one you would be flying blind. You never know if your quest for the "perfect" smooth surface will take you down to the base coat - then you get to repaint that panel or maybe the whole car because you removed too much! WET SANDING PERMANENTLY REMOVES PAINT - thereby putting you that much closer to repaint time!

(3) That perfectly smooth finish will show imperfections even quicker in the future... so get ready!

So when is wet sanding called for?

(1) You don't plan to keep the car forever and you don't mind shortening the time to that inevitable repaint.

(2) Car is a Garage Queen or primarily for Car Show Car use. (not a DD).

(3) You have just repainted your car and had them spray enough clear coat in anticipation of wet sanding.

While the factory clear coat is very hard, it is also very thin. Even using an RO (like I do) will remove clear coat each time (forever), but you can use an RO many times to get a "near perfect" finish and extend the life of the paint much further than with wet sanding. Wet sanding is so aggressive that it actually removes the clear coat in the high bumps of the orange peel (resulting in an uneven thickness of clear coat above the base coat) to yield a glass-smooth surface feel.

As far as resorting to wet sanding to remove a deep scratch - that is the only option vs repainting, just remember that to level the look of that scratch will remove lots of clear coat over much of that panel (just in time of that next tumbleweed to attack it again)!

 

Chero has brought some very important information about wet sanding. Especially the depth of the paint and also the clear coat. My first step before any action was taken was to have these depths determined.
For those of you that would like to know these depths, take note that there is a different measuring device for fiber glass and one for metal body cars. The depth measurement for clear coat is in microns and for paint it's mils. I'm sure that for a small fee, or no fee, any reputable professional supply store will do this.

 

You also need to take readings at many areas over the car as it will vary even over a single panel. Usually a professional detailer will take those readings before/during/after as he progressing.

 

Your not kidding about the tumbleweeds.....recently drove from Laguna Cali to Dallas and i hit one so big it dented one of my screens!! brutal!!