Wet sanding questions

97FLAIRSIDE

97FLAIRSIDE

I like blue! :oP
I just had my truck fixed from an earlier accident. Paint is ok, the did forget to fix the hood which is getting done on wednesday. But i had asked about repainting the entire truck, $300 per panel to sand down to base, respray base and then clear. Wasn't to bad, but the shop owner said find a good detailer and have him wetsand it and then polish it up. Figured, what the hell try it first.

So I need to know what grits would I need to wetsand my truck? How much sanding is needed or how do you know when to stop? What kind of polish do I use to bring it back to life? and will a DA work good enough?
 
Those would all be questions to ask the body guy, especially on the grit level.
I would not use anything other than a rotary (air or electric) to bring back significant wetsanding marks. Any polish system would work. It is a lot of work, typically an hour or so per panel.
 
1500-2000 grit wet sand paper will be fine. If this is your first time start with the 2000. Remember you only want to sand till the paint has an even dullness to it and I would not sand any sharp edges. Also put a small amount of car wash soap in you lube water and keep the area that your sanding wet. You might want to start with the tailgate first,that way if you screw up you only messed up the tailgate.
Why would you want to repaint your truck? Is the paint shot? The reason I ask is you will never get a more durable finish than the factory IMO.
 
vwgtivw is correct. I use 1500-200 grit for wet-sanding but as he stated above...go easy and stay away from edges. I'm only an amateur painter and I still always seem to think that it just needs to be 'a little slicker' and at that point...BAM...I've sanded through an edge.

You've got to be carful with buffing edges as well...I've burned through an edge or two before as well. It's often best to hand-buff any edges or tight nooks and crannies.

And as you're sanding...if you see any 'color' on your sandpaper...you've gone to far and then it's off to see the body shop for some repaint.:eek:

Take your time and go slow. It's pretty easy to do, but it's also very easy to sand through the clear.

Good luck!
 
I am sure you would be able to do it yourself with a little learning and practice. I don't know how to wetsand myself but thought I would give some input on this in "general". You "could go on and do it yourself on "your" vehicle the first time you ever wetsanded but do you think that would be smart?

I mean, I don't mean to make you feel like it can't be done because even professionals had to learn so learning isn't an issue here in my eyes. I would hate to see you try this the first time on your vehicle and sand too far and it be too late.

I would personally suggest you get a test hood or something and practice with that. I'm sure you could find a decent one in a junk yard somewhere with the paint still in tact to where you can practice and see what you can do with that. Just my advice and good luck. Oh, if you go ahead and do yours or a test hood post some before and after pics and your process. I'm sure alot of people would be interested either way.
 
vwgtivw said:
1500-2000 grit wet sand paper will be fine. If this is your first time start with the 2000. Remember you only want to sand till the paint has an even dullness to it and I would not sand any sharp edges. Also put a small amount of car wash soap in you lube water and keep the area that your sanding wet. You might want to start with the tailgate first,that way if you screw up you only messed up the tailgate.
Why would you want to repaint your truck? Is the paint shot? The reason I ask is you will never get a more durable finish than the factory IMO.
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YNOT said:
vwgtivw is correct. I use 1500-200 grit for wet-sanding but as he stated above...go easy and stay away from edges. I'm only an amateur painter and I still always seem to think that it just needs to be 'a little slicker' and at that point...BAM...I've sanded through an edge.

You've got to be carful with buffing edges as well...I've burned through an edge or two before as well. It's often best to hand-buff any edges or tight nooks and crannies.

And as you're sanding...if you see any 'color' on your sandpaper...you've gone to far and then it's off to see the body shop for some repaint.:eek:

Take your time and go slow. It's pretty easy to do, but it's also very easy to sand through the clear.

Good luck!
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I think that 97FLAIRSIDE wants to get the whole truck repainted and was going to prep the truck before paint himself by wetsanding the truck down to the base coat so he could bring the truck to the body shop for them to reapply the base and clear coats... so I don't think it would matter if he goes through the clear, as long as it's going to get repainted. I have no body shop experience but I would think 1000 grit would cut through the clear if you were going to prep it yourself....
 
Actually, when I painted graphics on my car, I simply used a gray scotchbrite to rough the surface up. All you want to do if just repainting is to rough the surface enough to allow the paint to 'bite'. If you go too aggresive, you'd need to use primer otherwise you'll see sanding marks through the paint.

There's no need to sand down to bare metal unless you are doing an immense amount of bodywork. Once you open it up to bare metal, there's a lot more prep work that has to be done.
 
First off, I took it that the wet sanding and polishing was to improve the appearance of the existing paint. If I'm wrong, then what I say will have even less value.
My friends at the body shop have done wet sanding on two vehicles for me. Both times it was done to try to avoid repainting a panel and if it didn't work, I was not really out anything. On a Honda CR-V, he went through the clearcoat almost immediately and we did paint the panel. On a Ford Taurus, he was able to remove a lot of the damage and never did go through the clearcoat.
I guess my point is that even those with experience are at the mercy of the hardness and the thickness of the clearcoat on the panel being sanded.
The Honda clarcoat was gone in 3 minutes or less. He worked on the Taurus for 5 minutes, checked the appearance and then hit it some more.
FWIW, he used 2000 grit for mine, but would usually use 1500 to get it done quicker.

After seeing how easy it was to go through the clearcoat, I personally would never do it unless I was prepared to possibly need to paint afterwards.

Charles
 
CharlesW said:
First off, I took it that the wet sanding and polishing was to improve the appearance of the existing paint. If I'm wrong, then what I say will have even less value.

Charles
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It is. I'm a bit confused on what he is trying to accomplish here.

97FLAIRSIDE said:
Wasn't to bad, but the shop owner said find a good detailer and have him wetsand it and then polish it up. Figured, what the hell try it first.
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Is he wanting to wetsand to make the paint "WITHOUT REMOVING CLEAR/BASE" look better for some reason or is he wanting to strip it completely down to get ready for paint?


97FLAIRSIDE said:
So I need to know what grits would I need to wetsand my truck? How much sanding is needed or how do you know when to stop? What kind of polish do I use to bring it back to life? and will a DA work good enough?
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This is what makes me think he is just wanting to wetsand and "NOT" remove any actual paint to prepare for a paint job. Would make since to go this route if what he is wanting to do is easily corrected by wetsanding and polishing but don't know what exactly he is trying to do here. Maybe he should just clarify on this before anymore ideas on both ends are talked about.
 
Ok ok let's clear this up. I did originally want to repaint the truck. The bed of the truck is in not the best condition. The previous owner had a cap on it for his band equipment and the paint was a different color. It seemed to have run off or bled into my paint and stained it around the corners. Its very dull looking in the corners aswell, especially by the cab.

The drivers side door has quiet a few dings in it that were to get fixed if i repainted. Besides the dings the truck just had way way to many scratches and spiderwebs that i thought would come out with a detailing but some didn't.

This is when the owner on Monday said, "You could probably save a ton of money and have it wetsanded!" I'de rather save alot of money and have the truck wetsanded and brought back to life. I've seen some pics on DC here. And by saving money i mean i'de do it. Or if i didn't feel comfortable i'll find a good place to do it. The body shop did say 3000 grit, but only 1 grit to do a whole truck?

Also why wouldn't a DA be good enough?
 
97Flairside,i haven't wet sanded my self but from what i have seen and read thru other forums a DA maynot be enough to remove the sanding marks created by the sand paper..Anthony Orosco did a short video on sanding maybe this may help with some direction..I say do a small area and if your not happy let the shop take care of it but only if your ok with a respray in case things don't come out to your standards..
 
97FLAIRSIDE said:
Ok ok let's clear this up. I did originally want to repaint the truck. The bed of the truck is in not the best condition. The previous owner had a cap on it for his band equipment and the paint was a different color. It seemed to have run off or bled into my paint and stained it around the corners. Its very dull looking in the corners aswell, especially by the cab.

The drivers side door has quiet a few dings in it that were to get fixed if i repainted. Besides the dings the truck just had way way to many scratches and spiderwebs that i thought would come out with a detailing but some didn't.

This is when the owner on Monday said, "You could probably save a ton of money and have it wetsanded!" I'de rather save alot of money and have the truck wetsanded and brought back to life. I've seen some pics on DC here. And by saving money i mean i'de do it. Or if i didn't feel comfortable i'll find a good place to do it. The body shop did say 3000 grit, but only 1 grit to do a whole truck?

Also why wouldn't a DA be good enough?
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3000 would take a lot of work , I'd go with 2000.
The PC is not really the tool to do that amount of work, it's more for light swirls, scratches and applying LSP's. A rotary is the tool needed.
Beercan31 does not live too far from you and I know he has plenty of experience in sanding and polishing, he also carries around primed sandpaper in his truck which I've never seen anyone else do. you might want to send him a pm :)
 
I definitely need the bed of my truck wetsanded. I had to drop the truck off on wednesday for the body shop to repair the hood the guy forgot to do. I picked it up today and it looks great. I just want everything this shiney now.

Steve, do you know if beercan has a business site or phone #?
 
Another approach might be to try a more aggressive polish first. One problem with wet sanding is that the paint finish is leveled significantly. This is good if the body is in near perfect condition, however any minor dings or imperfections will show up twice as much when the paint is sanded smooth and then polished. A good buffing with Meguiars DACP or Poorboys SSR 2.5 and a rotary buffer will do wonders for bringing life back to a dull finish. After that follow up with SSR 1 or Meguiars #82 and your favorite LSP.
Just my .02
 
97FLAIRSIDE said:
I definitely need the bed of my truck wetsanded. I had to drop the truck off on wednesday for the body shop to repair the hood the guy forgot to do. I picked it up today and it looks great. I just want everything this shiney now.

Steve, do you know if beercan has a business site or phone #?
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I talked to him this morning, you have a pm;)
 
You know i haven't used SSR3 or maybe i should go 2.5 with a cutting pad on the bed. I personally haven't detailed the blue truck myself since i've owned. I had it detailed after i bought it but it was not what i expected. Lots of rotary buffer marks on the paint. I just wish it would warm up here in the NY/NJ area, it hit 70 in january once and again almost 80 3 weeks ago but has been cold since.

But i did have a nice compliment today. I went to quickcheck for a mtdew and cigs. Had the pepsi guy staring at my truck, then said "nice truck!", i thanked him, he then asked "what year?", told him a 98 and he was just like :jawdrop:
 
i just used a piece of wetsand paper i found with my paintscratch.com kit. I did it on the small section of the flareside bed. In the top corner by the tailgate i used some soapy water, soaked the paper and sanded lightly. What I noticed was yea it smoothed it, but the dark spot that I thought was a stain is infact the color so thin that the black fiberglass bed color is showing. So now there is no paint on the very small lip before the plastic bed rail. Its not even that noticeable.

So now I know that the paint where it seems dark is to thin to even bother with wetsanding. Another spot i wanted to tackle i didn't wetsand it just used a heavy swirl remover(ssr2.5), it shined it up and helped a bit. This was all by hand and im sure DA would've yielded better results.

But now im torn on what to do about the section that is dark. You can't see where the black is showing unless you walk up and look for it. But that whole corner by the drivers side tailight is noticeably darker then the tailgate and rest of body panel.

Do i try and order a mix of moonlight blue paint in aerosol can and maybe try and spray that section myself?
 
97FLAIRSIDE said:
Do i try and order a mix of moonlight blue paint in aerosol can and maybe try and spray that section myself?
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You might get by with that, but it really should be sanded, primed, color coated and clear coated to match the rest of the truck.
It isn't quite as easy as it sounds, but some people seem to be able to do it. You definitely need to do a section where there is some sort of a break in the panel where you can start/stop painting.
Check with the guy that has been doing your painting. He may be able to shoot the trouble areas for less money than you think.

Charles
 
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