wetsanding to polishing (need advice)

[thinmyster]

So im going to be wetsanding my car which has faily bad orange peel since I painted the car myself.

Anyways im looking for advice in the matter. Ive decided to order from eshine since they are Canadian, so all the products I am willing to use are going to come from there or or whatever I can find locally)

I was planning on wetsanding the car in the following way:

-Probably start at 1000grit (unless you convince me to start at 1200/1500)
-work my way up to 2500 grit (maybe less)

Once thats complete im lost on what the next step should be:

I'll be using the porter cable 7424
but i need advice on products to bring me to the final product. (pads and compounds)

In your answer can you please match the compound to the pad.

ie) First step to remove 2500grit scratches: use yellow Lake country pads and meguires #95 cutting compound.

Thanks guys!

Also what size pads are you using 6" or 8?

[crxcel]

I use 8 inch pad with Farecla G3 for cutting and G10 for finishing. I use wool plad witht he G3 and then foam pads for G10..color of pads is gonna vary from brand to brand. go for a light cut and then a super soft to get rid of any swirls. and you shouldnt have to go finer than 2000..make sure to change your water opften to keep the chances of getting grit in it.

[TurboD]

look around, do some searches online

the web is FULL of info, even this small forum has tons and tons of useful info if you just take the time to search

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/228550/wetsanding/

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/238250/wetsanding-question/

etc

[Redlyne_jr]

yea id probably start with at least 1500... and lots of water!!!;)

[Redlyne_mr2]

Awesome to hear you got a paint job Jon.. any pics

[thinmyster]

so pretty much follow what this guys does?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89323lmQ2LI&feature=channel_page

Should i go meguires#105->80->21? what pads would you match with these?

[thinmyster]

Originally posted by Redlyne_mr2
Awesome to hear you got a paint job Jon.. any pics

Well actually I only did a couple panels. Its to cold to paint/or do any finishing right now so im going to get mr2mike to start sanding and prep the car this winter and the paint and polish will come this summer. There's just so much to fackin read and learn that i decided to get a head start and learn now.

[gofastmerc]

The coarser you start with, the more straight and level the end product will be. 1000 should be fine. If you started with 2000, it just rides the bumps, and doesn't really cut them down. Sometimes, depending on what you are trying to do, that is OK.

[thinmyster]

Thanks. Can you suggest a material or product to put under my paper.

[Drsuce]

Polishing out sanding marks with a porter cable will be quite the task. meguiars m105 would be your best bet for a compound, and i would probably pickup some 4" pads from eshine if you insist on using a PC.

With the time you will need to invest in polishing with the PC, you might be better off buying a super cheap rotary with a wool pad :) knock off the sanding marks in 1 pass with the rotary, and finish down with finer polish (meguiars m205 or menzerna SIP) with the porter cable :)

Defect removal with a porter cable is atainable but generaly takes a *very* long time...

[sneek]

E-shine is the place to get things! The stuff I don't get direct, I get from Chris from Eshine. I guess the first step is evaluating how much paint you have to play with and how bad is the orange peel. If it is really bad then you may have to start out with a more aggressive paper, like a 1500 or a 2000. As posted above you will have to go through more steps before you can polish out to an acceptable finish. I use acceptable because everyone has different standards. Are you looking for a factory look, or more of a show look?

[thinmyster]

Originally posted by Drsuce
Polishing out sanding marks with a porter cable will be quite the task. meguiars m105 would be your best bet for a compound, and i would probably pickup some 4" pads from eshine if you insist on using a PC.

With the time you will need to invest in polishing with the PC, you might be better off buying a super cheap rotary with a wool pad :) knock off the sanding marks in 1 pass with the rotary, and finish down with finer polish (meguiars m205 or menzerna SIP) with the porter cable :)

Defect removal with a porter cable is atainable but generaly takes a *very* long time...

thanks for the advice. I have a cheap rona rotary ( i can post pics later of the unit but im not sure if this is what you had in mind)


Originally posted by sneek
E-shine is the place to get things! The stuff I don't get direct, I get from Chris from Eshine. I guess the first step is evaluating how much paint you have to play with and how bad is the orange peel. If it is really bad then you may have to start out with a more aggressive paper, like a 1500 or a 2000. As posted above you will have to go through more steps before you can polish out to an acceptable finish. I use acceptable because everyone has different standards. Are you looking for a factory look, or more of a show look?

I have quite a bit of paint to work with, (I think i put close to 4 layers of clear on so that should be more than enough to work with) although the orange peel is pretty bad.
Im looking for somewhere in between a factory and show shine. I compared my paint to my parents new impala and the orange peel is slightly worse

[Toma]

Yeah, start with 1000 grit, use a foam backer, enough water to just keep it wet... trickle or spray from a windex bottle.

When I did mine, the 1000 grit sanding went very fast, so dont over do it... watch for the bumps to level. You will see this when you dry the area.

Then I only bothered to go 1500, and 2000, then I hit it with 3m compound on the yellow, and then the blue foam pads on a princess auto 7" polisher/grinder. (I may have the colour backwards, but same compound for both pads)

I got the pads and compound at Calgary Bodyshop supply.

Since I had it, my final 'coat' was the finer pad with Mothers Pre Wax cleaner.

Looked pretty good!

I would do one panel at a time start to finish.... just so you don't get lost and overwhelmed lol... it's a lot of work.

[sneek]

I have a midterm in a few hours, and another one tom morning so I'll keep it short.

I am pretty sure the Rona polisher is an orbital, not a rotary. I could be mistaken, but I am pretty sure Rona doesn't make a rotary polisher. With 4 coats of clear you probably have a TON of orange peel simply because the film build is so great. Impallas usually have pretty bad orange peel, so you should be able to have it looking a bit better. I wouldn't usually start with something like 1000 grit, simply because you can't really go back after you have sanded it down. It is a lot safer if you go slowly with a 1500 or 2000 to start then work your way up to maybe 2500 and then polish it out. How much polishing you will have to do also depends on how hard your paint is and what your finishing papers are. If we are thinking of the same Rona machine, it should have no problems taking out 3000 or 4000 grit sanding marks, but I am unsure of 2500. You might see it in bright conditions up close. On a side note, 3000 grit papers are pretty hard to find around Calgary, so you might be forced to finish with a 2000 or 2500 and polish your way back. Remember that both ways are simply methods of reducing film build until you have a flatter more uniform finish. Sanding is a lot more controlled than polishing, as you can easily control how many strokes you do, where as polishing you don't really know the rate that you are removing paint at.

[JZS_147]

i would use 3M trizac hookit pads and an orbital sander. they're expensive but well worth it.

start with wetsanding on 800 grit, then move to 1500 (be careful with the trizac 1500, there is no sponge padding like the 800 or the 3000, so if you press too hard or sit on a spot it will bite your paint) then finish with the 3000. If you do a good enough job with the 800, you should be able to skip the 1500 and go right to the 3000.

i used 2 x 800grit pads and 2 x 3000 grit pads to do an FD, this should give you an idea of the quantity you need.

use a decent amount of water, DO NOT skimp on the water. when you start with the 800 it will create a bit of a foam as you're running the sander. set the speed to a reasonable rate so the sander doesn't float, but still moving at a reasonable speed. if you do this properly, you should be able to rinse the section you did off and it should be as smooth as glass, but cloudy.

same process with the 3000.

rinse the car off with water. pressure from your garden hose is sufficient.

Use your discretion for polishing. you might need to use a heavy cut compound, or you may not. it depends on how good of a job you did wet sanding.

i will recommend for the worse case scenario;
whip out your buffer / polisher and grab some Meguiars diamond cut 2.0. use a medium foam pad, dash a little water on it (prevents the pad from soaking up the compound) and do a light polish on the car.

if it already looks good you can skip the previous step.

Grab a fine pad and then use some Meguiars fine cut cleaner, same process as before.

for the final polish, i recommend Meguiars Tech wax. use the sponge they supply and apply with a decent amount of pressure rubbing in circles. use a good polishing pad and polish it up.

guarantee you'll be happy with the results.

i did this to paint that looked like water spots all over the car. Painter was a friend of mine and was starting to do cars for a jdm dealership, he royally messed this one up, but i bailed him out and they were extremely impressed by the result. the car looked AMAZING after i was finished.

good luck!