Sanding marks on soft paint

**briarpatch** · 08-14-2016, 06:26 PM

So, today my wife's aunt came by, and I looked at the hood of her car. At a distance, it looked like it had spots all over it. When I got closer, it was touch-up paint that she had applied to chips and then tried to sand it. Suffice to say, the hood is a sea of scuffs. This is an older Toyota, and they're known to have soft paint. I'm looking for ideas on how to get rid of these, or at least make them less noticeable. I do not think she went thru the clear, but it's tough to tell, and pics really do not show it to a significant level of detail.

**briarpatch** · 08-15-2016, 07:38 AM

anyone...anyone....Bueller.....Bueller

Mike Phillips · 08-15-2016, 08:08 AM

I'd ask what grit level of sandpaper was used to do the sanding to start with.

If the person that did this had no clue as to what they were doing then I'd want to start with the sandpaper before simply jumping right into buffing. If they used a low grit paper then it may be safer to lightly re-sand with a high grit paper and then remove your sanding marks.

Can you ask someone?

Mike Phillips · 08-15-2016, 08:09 AM

Do you own a rotary buffer?

Mike Phillips · 08-15-2016, 08:12 AM

From another thread on scratch touch up paint application. Everything I wrote below applies to tacking this project.

Couple of comments to anyone ever attempting to do this kind of repair...

1. When possible, let the paint dry longer. You want the touch up paint as dry and hard as possible before you start sanding and buffing on it.

The problem you can run into when you start buffing on touch-up paint is when you warm it up, especially when using a rotary buffer, you can actually pull the touch-up paint right out of the scratch or rock chip if you're attempting to do this to a rock chip. Then you're back to where you started only now you've got sanding marks in the surrounding paint.

2. Touch-up paint will always be softer than the factory paint surrounding the repair, here's how this affects the buffing process. When you go to buff out your sanding marks, they will buff out quickly and easily out of the touch-up paint because this paint is softer, especially if it's only dried a short time. The surrounding paint will be harder and thus it will be harder or more difficult to remove your sanding marks out 100 percent.

It's easy to sand paint as at it's core that's putting scratches into the paint... the tricky part is getting the ALL out...

When doing touch-up repair work on clear coat paints, what I've seen and experienced is the sanding marks come out of the touch-up paint quickly and easily but not so with the factory clear.

So what a person does is continue buffing the sanding marks in the surrounding clear paint and what happens is you heat the panel up and your buffing pad will literally pull the touch-up paint out of the scratch or chip.

3. You really need a rotary buffer to remove sanding marks 100%

Can you do it with a DA or Flex or even Cyclo? Sure but it will take longer. Again the sanding marks will come out of the touch-up paint quickly and easily, it's the surrounding factory baked-on clear coat that you'll need to be concerned with.

Try to finish sand with #3000 or higher before buffing.

Mike Phillips · 08-15-2016, 08:15 AM

Originally Posted by briarpatch

anyone...anyone....Bueller.....Bueller

Just to note - the date stamp on your first post is - 08-14-2016, 07:26 PM

That was Sunday evening at 7:26pm. (according to the forum clock)

Forums are not instantaneous.

For me, I was just finishing installing new header gaskets on my truck.

**briarpatch** · 08-15-2016, 08:55 AM

point taken.....just trying to be humorous rather than use the standard 'TTT'.....my apologies if it came off as anything else....

I've no idea what grit paper was used originally......will try and get that info....at least I know the touch-up paint is hardened....looks to have been this way for a while......i do not have a rotary but i do have access to one.....