New to list/ wet sanding questions

[Guest JT43]

Hi, new to the list and have a question on wetsanding a new paintjob/clearcoat? I am not a professional detailer/painter but I've always wanted to do some automotive painting. So I practiced on my own car. I'm to the wetsanding stage of the clearcoat and then on to buffing (I hope!) neither of which I have done before. I will take any info on either since I don't want to screw up a decent paint job to this point. I put on three 'good' coats of clear, figuring I would not lay down anywhere near a flawless job ( I was right). I had a lot of difficulty with the clear, with the gun cloging and having to clean it a few times during the process. I figure I did not have the pressure correct and moved to slow so it clogged. I have the typical hairs, paint flecks from paint blowing off the masked areas, and rough clear from moving to fast and a run from not moving fast enough. All which I know can be worked on, but how? I was told start with 1200 and then go to 2000 grit wet sanding. How big of an area do you tackle at a time, one panel? Work in large circles or small? What about sanding pads. If you have any good tutorals you can point me to , I would appreciate it. I seem to work better watching someone do it vs. reading about it. Of course I didn't takle a simple one color paint job first off, I have a two-tone with graphics, airbrushing and shading. All this on my daily driver, hopefully in prep for my classic, if I ever get it to that point! I will probably post this in the paint and body section too!

Thanks for any help, JT

[Guest AutoAppearancesInc]

Hi, new to the list and have a question on wetsanding a new paintjob/clearcoat?  I am not a professional detailer/painter but I've always wanted to do some automotive painting.  So I practiced on my own car.  I'm to the wetsanding stage of the clearcoat and then on to buffing (I hope!) neither of which I have done before.  I will take any info on either since I don't want to screw up a decent paint job to this point.  I put on three 'good' coats of clear, figuring I would not lay down anywhere near a flawless job ( I was right).  I had a lot of difficulty with the clear, with the gun cloging and having to clean it a few times during the process.  I figure I did not have the pressure correct and moved to slow so it clogged.  I have the typical hairs, paint flecks from paint blowing off the masked areas, and rough clear from moving to fast and a run from not moving fast enough.  All which I know can be worked on, but how?  I was told start with 1200 and then go to 2000 grit wet sanding.  How big of an area do you tackle at a time, one panel?  Work in large circles or small? What about sanding pads.  If you have any good tutorals you can point me to , I would appreciate it.  I seem to work better watching someone do it vs. reading about it.  Of course I didn't takle a simple one color paint job first off, I have a two-tone with graphics, airbrushing and shading.  All this on my daily driver, hopefully in prep for my classic, if I ever get it to that point!  I will probably post this in the paint and body section too!

Thanks for any help, JT

[*]302062

Welcome to the forum.

Not to be a wise A#$ here, but do a search (TintBandit) has several threads on wet sanding, with blow by blow descriptions and pictures too.

[solareclipseauto]

there is a full write up on wetsand and buffing. I would practice on something before you try this. there are many things that can go wrong (burning,ect). I practiced on a beater car when I first started just to get used to wet sanding and buffing. I have seen alot of car that are screwed up from people trying to do it themselves without any experience. not trying to knock you from doin it but just giving you the heads up.

[tint bandit]

Have to wait one weekend when I have had a couple of glasses of wine before I could have the patients to type that much on wetsanding and painting again You could go to the library and dheck out some research material,or try a search for a video tape for sale.I have been wetsanding and primering and blocking my T/A for 5 weekends so that tells you that there is more to do than could be posted in this forum ,especially if your doing the entire car

[Guest AutoAppearancesInc]

TintBandit:

Guess the forum daoes keep thread that long?

That is why everytime I read a great post like yours on wet sanding. I save it to CD for future reference.