LordRipberger

Hey Guys,

I decided to try my hand in wet sanding and I have a few questions.

As luck would have it, I have a spare 2006 Mustang bumper and I am using it for practicing this.

I wet sanded the bumper with 2000 grit paper and then again with 3000 grit to smooth things out. I used poor boys SSR 1-4 and it looks great. The orange peal is down, however it is not gone.

My issues:
1) I cannot seem to get all the scratches to go away. I have buffed the area a few times and I can still see them in the light. However, when I run my fingernail over them, I don't feel anything nor do I see any paint missing. So this leads me to believe I didn't go to far down. Ideas?

2) I thought wet sanding was suppose to remove all orange peal. Since I can still see some, does that mean I didn't scrape off enough? And if so, I am already having issues with getting all the scratches out, wouldn't going deeper make more issues?

3) How bad is the surface suppose to look when you are done sanding? I saw the white stuff being washing off as I went through my strokes so I know I got into the clear. When I dried things, there was no shine and it looked like a white haze over the surface. Is that suppose to happen or am I looking for a much worse appearance when finished sanding?

Thanks guys.

Wades GT

1] Some scratches can go deeper than clear. Some orange peal can be in the paint and the clear is sprayed over the orange pealed paint. If that is the case you can go to far when you are color sanding and end up going through the clear into the paint. The idea of color sanding is to remove dirt and imperfections such as orange peel or clear coat runs. If you are color sanding on Factory paint you can only remove small scratches and light orange peel, because the factory only sprays so much clear on the car. After market paint jobs tend to have 2-5 more layers of clear then the factory paint jobs have. So with an after market paint job you usually have enough clear that when you are color sanding you are sanding until the clear coat is smooth with no blemishes.

2] Now I need to know what you are using... What kind of buffer do you have? What pads are you using? What kind of polishes are you using? When you were color sanding were you sanding in one direction or were you all over the place, and did you use soapy water?

3]Color sanding should be done in one directiion, you never go in a cross pattern or swirl pattern. You must use soapy water and a wet sanding block. The only buffer I would recomend for color sanding duties is a Rotary buffer. I use wool pads, but some people like the foam cutting pads with a rotary buffer. 3m makes a good cutting compound, but I like the meguires Diamond Cut compound the more I use it. The diamond cut seems to cut faster and leaves the least amount of swirls behind. Then I use a da type buffer and Meguires ultra finishing polish to do the fine polishing and to remove any light swirls left by the diamond cut and the rotary buffer.

Be very careful using a rotary buffer.... Allways check your temp of the area you are buffing... it is easy to burn the paint if you are not buffing smart.

Allways make sure you pads are clean... I can clean a pad 3 or more time while buffing a car. So if you want a fast clean cut, remember to clean your pads.


Here are some pics of the products I use......

Rotary buffer set




Da polisher / polisher set




I hope this helps you.....

LordRipberger

I have a porter cable with lake country flat pads. I was going to start a comparison on a few products....Poor Boys, Meguiar's 105 and 205, Meguiar's ultimate compound and Pinnacle Swirl remover.

I have used only the poor boys so far. I have gone through all 4 levels, (1, 2, 2.5, 3) and I can still see some scratches in the clear even though I can't feel them. I feel these could be coming out really easy, but don't.

I put the compound on, spread it around and then go over it until it become clear (break down the product). Which only takes about 1 or 2 passes as I go so slow. The PC speed is around 5 or 6, depending on how I feel.

I haven't never used wool. No one ever really told me to and I don't know the benefit.

I did not use soapy water, but just water. I had a regular sanding block wrapped with my 2000 and 3000 git sand paper. I made sure the paper was longer then the block to prevent bad scratching. I dunked the bring in the water and sprayed the surface wet before starting. Then every few strokes I would spray more water.

Does that help?

Thanks.

AlsCobra

Are you wet sanding with a flat backing surface by hand. If using a DA, it probably won't take out the orange peel. Compounding with the DA won't cut very deep either. 2000 grit paper cuts pretty slowly also. As long as you still see white and not color, you're alright.

LordRipberger

I am sanding by hand as I thought that using a buffer would go to fast for my first attempt. I have a sanding block wrapped by my sand paper.

What about fixing the scratches I still seem to have?