Products/Items needed for wetsanding

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NorcalZ71

New member
Ok so i have basically been too busy with school/sports/life in general to get my truck where i want it to be detail-wise. now that things are calming down, i plan to get the thing as perfect as possible before winter, likely working panel by panel since i dont have large chunks of time to do it all at once. i have never wet sanded before, but i can practice on my roommates civic and plan to do as much of my truck as possible to eliminate some unfortunate scratches and factory OP.



what are the basic, essential products i am going to need, so far ive got the obvious:

paper (2000, 2500, 3000 i am thinking)

4 star gel (heard its awesome?)

spray bottle w/ water/soap too

clay the paint first?

use a body solvent first?



im going to be using a PC, i have the harbor freight rotary but just havent got much practice on it and dont like the feel quite as much, i need to order some new PC pads so im thinking some 4" spot pads, and also i need to order 1-2 more polishes/compounds, which are going to be the best for removing the sanding marks. i know with the PC it will be slow going, but like i said ill go panel by panel so it should be too bad.



thanks
 
I just filled some rock chips on my scion. I used touch up paint from paintscratch.com. I was going to detail my car, so I fully washed and clayed the entire car. Afterwards, I cleaned the areas with some IPA. Once that was done, I filled the scratches with several layers of touch up. I used 2k grit paper with a dab of car wash soap as lube to sand down the paint. Afterwards I used SSR2.5 to polish out the sanding marks and went straight to my LSP.
 
I did my entire car this summer. I too had not done an entire vehicle but I will tell you the results are fantastic. I used all 3m compounds and finished it off with AIO and SG. If your paint is not in real bad shape you can use 2000 grit for the entire process which is what I did. You can use a spray bottle with soap and water if you'd like for lubricant, however, I found when doing an entire care you get quite tired of constantly spraying. I just used my hose with a small stream of water constantly running over the surface. I did one panel at a time and used a piece of closed cell foam for a backing pad which worked great. The other benefit is the constant stream washes away all contaminants immediately and will keep the work area clean. The foam provides even pressure and allows you to hit contours quite easily without putting too much pressure on the paint. Take your time and you will enjoy the results.



after sanding the entire car I went to work with a cutting pad and a 3m heavy cut compund. The one I used will remove 1200 grit scratches. I then worked up to medium, fine (swirl remover) and then their finesse polish, AIG, and three coats of SG. All in all it took some time but thefinal results are worth it. I never neglected my car but did go a few months without polishing/waxing and had some fine scratches that needed to be removed. I'm sure I could have just machined them out but really wanted to try my hand at wetsanding.
 
I've gotta preface this with a little disclaimer, as wetsanding factory paints is, under optimal conditions, not advisable. I find myself doing it all the time though, you've just got to be willing to accept the tradeoff that your paint will look better, but it will fail faster.



Wetsanding to take the scratches out is fine, but think long and hard about just how badly you want that OP gone - factory paint isn't that thick, and I swear to god that recent GM paint is more orange peel than good clear (I have *not* been impressed with the work I've seen from their paint booths recently).



If you've considered the risks and still want to do it, I'd first start by prepping for it. Tape off edges (you don't want to sand right near the edge of a panel, they're *very* thin and it's easy to go through, don't ask me how I know), clay the paint, use a body solvent to remove any tar/etc.



Soak the paper in a bucket of water with a little bit of soap, then use 4* AEG if you can get your hands on it. Spray the lubricant on the areas to be sanded, than sand away using even strokes with light to no pressure, keep the strokes in the same direction always or they'll be a real bear to buff out.



As far as grit goes, I personally like to use 1500 or 2000, but in your case (less experience, using a PC to take out marks), 2500 is probably the way to go. Avoid 3000, i've cut faster than that with a rotary and a foam pad.
 
right on guys, thanks for the input. the truck is a 94 and as far as 12 year old paint goes, its in awesome shape, its just taken more of a beating that id like while living here at school and having people around it all the time. i think ill definitely stick to 2000+, nothing is THAT bad but there are 2 lines of constant scratches that definitely need attention.



just curious, as far as time goes, how long "should" a typical panel take, say one door or a hood? Most people say it takes 3-4 hours or so to sand the vehicle down, obviously they have experience so it goes quicker, but just curious on a per panel basis so i know if im somewhat in the ballpark. also, what paper would ya'll recommend? should i definitely order some professional grade stuff from meg's or 3m or the like?



thanks again
 
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