wetsanding question
- Thread starter zarko
- Start date
Sometimes...but it really depends on the paint. Based on your Avatar if you're attempting this on an Audi I'm gnonna be a bit negative here and think that it won't happen without a rotary. Just based on my personal experience with Audi paint.
Meguiars M105 w/ 4' orange pads is going to be your best bet via PC and is going to marr the crap out of the surface but *might* get the sanding marks out.
Andy
Meguiars M105 w/ 4' orange pads is going to be your best bet via PC and is going to marr the crap out of the surface but *might* get the sanding marks out.
Andy
Accumulator
Well-known member
I've polished out 2K scratches on clear without a rotary plenty of times, including on Audis. I've even done this, on Audis, by *hand*...not exactly fun or time-efficient, but it can be done.
Note that all 2K scratches aren't the same...the Meguiar's/Nikken Unigrit paper leaves very uniform scratches but some versions of 3M's 2K will leave random "tracers" that are a *lot* deeper/worse than 2K and might be problematic. So I'd absolutely stick with the Meguiar's/Nikken papers, or something from Mirka (also nice and uniform IME). Might want to try 3K or 2500 instead of the 2K.
Assuming the scratches are really/uniformly 2K, the PC will remove them with an aggressive pad/product combo. I'd certainly use 4" pads, nothing bigger. If the clear is hard you might want to use the 3.5" LC PFW pads, which IME take the scratches out quickly and easily.
Note that all 2K scratches aren't the same...the Meguiar's/Nikken Unigrit paper leaves very uniform scratches but some versions of 3M's 2K will leave random "tracers" that are a *lot* deeper/worse than 2K and might be problematic. So I'd absolutely stick with the Meguiar's/Nikken papers, or something from Mirka (also nice and uniform IME). Might want to try 3K or 2500 instead of the 2K.
Assuming the scratches are really/uniformly 2K, the PC will remove them with an aggressive pad/product combo. I'd certainly use 4" pads, nothing bigger. If the clear is hard you might want to use the 3.5" LC PFW pads, which IME take the scratches out quickly and easily.
JohnKleven
New member
That's going to be a lot of work. I recommend get a rotary buffer, and start with a wool compounding pad. It takes a lot of lighting, to be able to see all the scratches, you don't want to polish them lightly, take it out in the sun and it looks horrible. You're much better off compounding it with a rotary buffer. It still takes a while to get wetsanding scratches all the way out.
John
John
ABQDetailer
New member
I have a Flex 3401 and a Makita 9227 and the Flex takes 2-3+ passes of what the Makita can do in a single pass. For compounding a wet sanded surface nothing comes close to a rotary. Granted I haven't used a Cyclo but I doubt it could hang with the rotary or even the Flex for that matter (from what I've read).
I've polished out 3M Imperial 2000 grit markings (stuff from AutoZone) w/o a problem but since then I've switched to Abralon and haven't looked back. I can go from Mirka Abralon 2000 straight to 4000 and boy does it really make a difference. If you can get your hands on this stuff you should jump on it. You can get smaller quantities on Ebay from the bowling distributors and a number of those sell five packs and they let you choose the grit. So you could do three 2000 and two 4000's which would be plenty to do an entire car. The Abralon seems to last a good while so it offsets the higher cost (It's like $3-4 per 6" pad). I tried some Indasa abrasives and they were decent (and did a good enough job) but nothing close to the Mirka product. IE don't skimp out on your abrasives as the quality makes a big difference. I should add I'm using a 3/32 IR 6" finishing air sander so I can't comment on how good this stuff is by hand. I would imagine it would be fine though.
HF sells cheap rotaries and cheap wool pads if you don't want to spring for a nicer rotary setup. It really depends on how much you are gong to use it. I'd recommend springing for a name brand rotary even for a hobbiest. Check Ebay, CL, etc if you don't want to but new. Always tons of good deals to be had out there...I found my 9227C on CL and got it for less than $100 with some pads thrown in. It had like four hours on it too...cleaned it up and it's like new!
Good luck.
I've polished out 3M Imperial 2000 grit markings (stuff from AutoZone) w/o a problem but since then I've switched to Abralon and haven't looked back. I can go from Mirka Abralon 2000 straight to 4000 and boy does it really make a difference. If you can get your hands on this stuff you should jump on it. You can get smaller quantities on Ebay from the bowling distributors and a number of those sell five packs and they let you choose the grit. So you could do three 2000 and two 4000's which would be plenty to do an entire car. The Abralon seems to last a good while so it offsets the higher cost (It's like $3-4 per 6" pad). I tried some Indasa abrasives and they were decent (and did a good enough job) but nothing close to the Mirka product. IE don't skimp out on your abrasives as the quality makes a big difference. I should add I'm using a 3/32 IR 6" finishing air sander so I can't comment on how good this stuff is by hand. I would imagine it would be fine though.
HF sells cheap rotaries and cheap wool pads if you don't want to spring for a nicer rotary setup. It really depends on how much you are gong to use it. I'd recommend springing for a name brand rotary even for a hobbiest. Check Ebay, CL, etc if you don't want to but new. Always tons of good deals to be had out there...I found my 9227C on CL and got it for less than $100 with some pads thrown in. It had like four hours on it too...cleaned it up and it's like new!
Good luck.