So I wetsanded a car with 220 grit sandpaper...

G

golfdude

New member
Ok, it was a huge mistake, but I am willing to take the blame for it. For one thing, that's all the sandpaper I had. The reason for even wetsanding was because a customer wanted some touch-up paint leveled. Nevertheless, it was ugly, really ugly with tons of fine scratches (damaged area is slightly larger than half a standard US license plate). I tried to fix the problem with between 4 and 6 passes of SFX 1 and a 4 inch cutting pad, then SFX 2 (with medium polishing pad), then SFX 3 (with finishing pad) without improvement, so I gave up. Any recommendations on how to solve the problem as I don't have a rotary and I probably don't want the bumper resprayed. The customer's friend has a rotary though...will that help remove the scratches? What about OHC? What about using less aggressive sandpaper to smooth out the finish? I was thinking of getting a whole bunch of touch-up paint, covering the area with touch-up paint, letting it dry, then level that area properly with proper wetsanding technique including multiple passes of wetsanding using more appropriate grits of sandpaper. Any and all kinds of help will be great. Sorry, but no pictures are available because my camera is not working. Thanks.
 
you'l be very very lucky if theres enough paint on there to get it all out....the other guys are right, you will have to go through all the grades to sand away those scratches...600-800-1200-1500 then polish



be prepared for getting it repainted
 
The vehicle was a fairly new, 6000 miles on the odometer Scion Xb. Despite the disaster, at least I leveled out the paint and the old scratches or not to be seen. So, with this in mind, should I try the 600 to 800 to 1000 to 1200 to 1500 grit wetsanding route?
 
xfire are you prepared to pay to have this painted? id imagine more than a quick wipe with 600-800 and you will see primer



sorry , but im 99% sure its gona need paint....or at least have someone with more experiance look at it before you make more trouble for yourself
 
Ya, I'd go 600, 1000, 1500, then maybe even 2000 or higher. Perhaps try polishing at 1500 and see if you're happy with the results. Like the other guys I'd say any sanding with under 600 grit is going to get your through the clear *really* fast, so if you notice the paint is discolored after the 600/1000/1500 polish combo you're likely going to have to get it re-sprayed.
 
I'm really not prepared for a repaint...what about touch-up paint? If I really do want a repaint, how much would it cost?
 
If you're not prepared for a repaint, you should never get near a vehicle with anything less than 3000 grit paper.
 
ZaneO said:
If you're not prepared for a repaint, you should never get near a vehicle with anything less than 3000 grit paper.
Click to expand...



Heh heh, took the words right out of my mouth...though I'll sometimes use my 2K block.



Can you go from 220 to 600 :confused: I never tried that, but then I never used 220 on a finish coat either.



With so little paint to work with I'd try to do it in as few steps as possible. Inspect after almost every stroke. If you guess wrong about how far to go you'll run out of paint in no time.



Get Unigrit, not 3M as you can't afford to do extra correction. Even 2000 can be tough to get out without a rotary.



When it's all said and done, you're almost certainly looking at having it reshot. It's almost guaranteed to be too thin for long-term durability anyhow and IMO it'd be pretty unfair to give the car back and have it fail on the customer after a little while in the sun.



At the risk of sounding really :nono being "willing to take the blame for it" (as you put it) in this case means 'fessing up that you messed up and doing what's right by the customer, which is getting it repainted. With any luck he'll meet you half-way and pay for part of it.



The real lessons here are to a) turn down some work and/or b) don't try something experimental/questionable on somebody else's car.
 
Ya, I definitely think that it's best to be honest and admit you made a mistake. Hopefully the customer will be cool about it and you won't end up with too big a bill.



Like Accumulator I'd definitely suggest some unigrit. Meg's online has both sheets and blocks. I do quite a lot of wetsanding now and I find unigrit helps me get rid of the marring much easier. In fact with 2000 or 3000 unigrit you can actually remove all the sandpaper marring with one pass of Opt Compound on a polishing pad.



Good luck.
 
Another option: if you're upfront enough you may be able to pull this off:



Have the customer take it to the body shop of their desire, and have them pay for it. Have them show you the bill, and give that customer 150% (or a cut of your liking) of that amount in credit towards future details with you.
 
I don't even use 220 on Primer before painting. 180 - 240 grit is for leveling body filler. I don't know of any Leveler's or Compounds that go below 800 grit scratches (Hi-Temp's HCL and EHCL).



For the area the size of 1/2 a US license plate you can scratch the touch-up paint idea. It's not made for that type of application and will look like sh*t.



Sure you can try stepping through the grits (320, 400, 600, 800,1200,1500) wet (just a couple passes w/each) but like someone else said on factory applied paint, 220 well cut real fast. I'm amazed you didn't hit primer. But that may be working in your favor.



What does the area look like?



If you've hit primer = re-paint



If you've gone through the clear to the Base but not to Primer = Bodyshop can just re-Clear the whole part.



This will require a Rotary but go light on plastic parts cause it's easy to burn through.



Lastly, it's no longer up to you, IMHO, as to if the part gets re-painted or not, If you can't fix it then I'm thinking the customer has the last say so.
 
I thought April first was last month... We all make mistakes, just do your best usually repainting panels on a Scion isn't that expensive.
 
I thought April first was last month... Jkin- We all make mistakes, just do your best usually repainting panels on a Scion isn't that expensive. Worst case you'll lose a hundred or two after your paid for your work. Bet you won't do that again heh.
 
Ok, everyone here has convinced me that it is better to be prepared to repaint the surface that I messed up. Now, of course I will ask the owner what they would like to do with the mess-up. I will say that the whole purpose of wetsanding, as mentioned before, was to level a good amount of touch-up paint on a scratch. After my whole ordeal with the sandpaper and multiple attempts with SFX 1 and a light cut spot pad, I removed MOST of that touch-paint. This will give you a rough idea of the level to which I polished down the clearcoat. My pads turned black, probably from the touch-up paint that did not match the factory paint (the touch-up paint was a jet-black, while the factory paint was a dark-grey metallic). I will direct the customer to this thread and I will see if we can get some pictures for everyone to see.
 
I would not direct him to this thread seeing as though you were about 800 grit off from what you should have used. Just tell him you made a mistake and you will pay for the re-paint...it will make you look better being honest and fixing the problem, rather than letting him see this thread and ruining your reputation/credibility as he spreads the word.
 
Ehh, I'm not too worried about that as I already told the customer that I used way too strong of a piece of sandpaper. The fact was that the customer told me to attempt to fix the problem, so that's what I did with the resources that I have. But I created another problem during the process. I simply didn't have the reasources at the time and I will remember this mistake for future details.
 
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