Did some wetsanding

[zinc02gt]

So, today I went back to my folks' place, cleaned up the garage for some detail jobs coming in next week, and practiced wetsanding. I did some good, and I did some bad. I wasn't paying attention for a few strokes and I swiped some paint right off of an edge and using the wool pad with M105 didn't help to much either. Oh well. It's the entier reason I got this hood. Here's the pics.


http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10047.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10048-1.jpg

After wetsanding with 1500 and followed up by 2000.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10046.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10045.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10044-1.jpg

After

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10053-1.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10054-1.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10051-1.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10055.jpg

The burn, scuff, whatever you want to call it. I still dont think it was caused by the buffer, but more from the wetsanding. On the next side I will probably put a strip of tape around the edge to give me a half inch of 'thicker' clearcoat.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/zinc02gt/SDC10052-1.jpg

[Lasthope05]

This is exactly the reason why we practice on scrap panels first. When your wet sanding you should always leave a 1/8" gap between the edges and body lines. They edges and body lines have the thinnest layers of paint and are most susceptible to sand-through and burns like you experienced.

[zinc02gt]

Yup. If you look in one of the afþer wetsanding pics, you can see the wetsanding scuff near the top right corner. Its kind of hard as it is to work that groove witha 3M wool pad.

[Rsurfer]

This is why you need a PTG before wetsanding.

[zinc02gt]

Yeah, I saw that in Mike Phillips' posts in the wetsanding section. I did this more for a technique on how to remove stubborn stuff and I learned more than I thought I would really.



Are there any PTG's that aren't $500 that are worth the money? I mean, it's a valuable tool especially with a rotary, but I don't have that kind of cash to dump into a single item right now.

[Mike Phillips]

This is exactly the reason why we practice on scrap panels first. When your wet sanding you should always leave a 1/8" gap between the edges and body lines. They edges and body lines have the thinnest layers of paint and are most susceptible to sand-through and burns like you experienced.


This is a very good point. That is, paint will tend to flow a little off of high points or body lines and as such paint can be thinner in these areas and that's why you don't want to sand too close to them.

I use my thumbnail as a measuring tool, which is about a 1/2 inch in length, as a simple guide as to how close to sand to the edge.

A good rule of thumb, (no pun intended), is to never sand where you cannot safely use a rotary buffer. It's easy to sand close to an edge and not actually sand on the edge, it's difficult however to buff close to an edge without accidentally buffing on the edge.

The most common question that comes up on this topic of not sanding or buffing close to edges or body lines is

If I don't sand and buff all the way to the edge, won't there still be orange peel left in the paint in these areas?

The answer is yes, at least a little. How much time you want to invest into sanding and buffing close to edges and body lines is up to you but it's hard to get paid for that kind of meticulous work.

Two ways to remove orange peel close to body lines and edges is to use painter's tape to tape off the edges or body lines and then sand and buff up to the tape line, or sand up to the tape line and use a compound by hand to remove the majority of sanding marks, (because you can exert a lot of pressure using a few fingers to work a compound to a small area), and then do some careful machine polishing to remove any fingermarks from the hand rubbing process. Both of these techniques are time intensive and usually a little nerve wracking.


:)