Well I painted my engine cover, it came out pretty good, but then I put several coats of clear coat still good, then decided to put one more on and it sort of smeared a little no biggie, but it says on the can you can wet sand after 2-3 weeks, polish and buff etc. Can anyone give me some detailed info on how to wet sand and make it look sharp/polishing etc. Thanks for any info.

 

get a very fine sandpaper (dunno what grit to be honest, i just had those readily available at my local bodyshop), which was then moistened, and used to wetsand overspray on the clear coat and similar irregularities.

using a very fine sandpaper allows you to get a feel of things so you won't over-sand a spot by mistake if you get what i mean.

just work your way slowly and evenly till you work out all the overspray.. polish it and enjoy the new shine

 

You can pick up 2000 grit sandpaper at Lowes or Home Depot. I'd start with that.

 

lots and LOTS of water ....keep the paper and the surface of the cover soaked and constantly replenish the water with fresh to wash AWAY ANYTHING THAT THE SANDPAPER RUBS OFF.
Sand in one direction..... and keep feeling with your hand for any little bumps or imperfections.
Start buy feeling for any bumps then sand ONLY those spots first.
When you have *fixed all the inperfections then sand the whole thing in one direction.
You might want to try a 1500 grit sand paper, first to fix all the bumps . then try the 2000 grit, for the finish. *** This is not where you want to be cheap!! Buy name brand paper... like Mcquires or 3M. One imperfection in the sand paper( the wrong size grit, i.e. 800 or 1000 in the mix will screw you good). 2 or 3 sheets of each will do. When you are finished sanding the buff out the paint (take yourtime and don't burn the paint).
When you are finished toss on 2 or 3 coats of wax and enjoy your wotk.

 

so do I need a buffer for this or can I polish/buff by hand and with what for that, thanks for the tips guys.

 

You should definately use a sanding block instead of sanding with just your hand. That will keep the surface contact smoother.

You could use a buffer for a quicker job but don't overdo it.

 

Ive used a sponge as a 'block' before too...helps with keeping everything wet, and no corners to dig in - biggest worry about wetsanding- any outside corners will rub thru first so be extremely careful around edges, if the covers got 'ribs' on it, its gonna be easy to hit the color... if you do go thru into the color, stop- maybe it can be recleared, then block it again?

 

put a little dishwashing soap in the water ...makes the paper glide instead of bite ...you can hand sand 2k scratches out but you gotta do some rubbing ;-)

 

Let the results speak for themselves. http://www.uniqueautomotivedesigns.com/