Scrap Hood- Wetsanding

[budman3]

As you may know I picked up a BMW hood yesterday. Well it's raining out today so it was a good time to practice some wetsanding . I took a razor blade and scratched the panel so I had something to remove. Well, lets hope someone doesn't decide to take a razor blade to your car... it can't be wetsanded out . Even though it is still there, it is a lot less visible. Oh well... that's why it's a scrap hood.

Process:
-Wetsand w/ 1500 grit
-Wetsand w/ 2000 grit
-OHC, rotary, LC orange light cut x2
-Menzerna Powergloss, rotary, LC orange light cut x2
-Menzerna 106 Nano, rotary, LC white polishing pad

Pictures:

Scratched hood:


Before, taped up:


After 1500 grit:


2000 grit still wet on panel:


2000 grit dried:


OHC still on the panel:


Afters:






So I had a good time . If you do decide to wetsand, be sure to use even pressure, keep the paper/panel wet, go one direction, and most importantly... pay attention. Cutting this much clear could be detrimantal to the longevity of the paint job. However, after all of that sanding and polishing, there is still clear left... so if you are afraid of polishing your paint with a PC... I've cut the paint probably 10x more than the PC would and had no issues. Hope you enjoyed .

[FMINUS]

Very nice! I need a Bimmer panel...

[budman3]

Any body panel would be good to have. I plan on pushing the limit on some products to see how they fare. If I screw up... no big deal. This way I can judge how I should use these products in the future.

[AL417]

Very impressive! Thanks for doing this. Even though it made my skin crawl to see the AGO scratched on the panel I thought it was cool.

[budman3]

Very impressive! Thanks for doing this. Even though it made my skin crawl to see the AGO scratched on the panel I thought it was cool.

Well it's still there too . I guess the razor blade was a little too strong to sand out... oops. Let's hope this is the only time you'll see something written in the paint.

[budman3]

Instead of posting new threads of the tests that I will be doing, I'll just post them in here and hope people will find them...

Up today was a head to head comparision of the UDM and the PC. Since the hood is in decent shape I decided to add some swirls to it. I took a piece of the 2000 grit sandpaper that I used yesterday and lightly scuffed the finish, dry. Quite surprisingly I created swirls that can be seen on 85% of the vehicles on the road....

The left hand side is where I used the UDM and the right is the PC side. I did 5 passes (one pass is side to side for the whole section as well as up and down) and one pass with light pressure and faster movement. The polish that was used was Menzerna Nano Polish 106 and pad was a 7.5" LC VC white polishing pad. Both machines were used on speed 6.

Pictures:

Swirled up:


UDM polished:


PC polished:


Final results:


It's too early for a conclusion but this is the second time that I've had better results via PC. It could be because I have had more time with the PC and the more experience helps... or just the swirls on the UDM side were a little deeper (I don't think that's the case... I was careful to be as even as possible). But either way, the sections that were polished out look a lot better than it was before. I was a little skeptical to use the Menz via D/A because I haven't had good luck with IP or FP but it was a pleasure to use. It works better with the rotary though... but a polish that works with both is a good find .

[07ImpalaSS]

Cool!

[D]

SIP works very nicely with the PC as well. You just need to break it down. Otherwise its hard to remove.

[dannythekid]

Excellent tests. I have some old trunks in my garage I wanna start working on. maybe I'll post them up on here when I do it...

I need to get one of these PCs... Seems like it's the right tool for the job. Thanks again.

[FMINUS]

I really have to try and get some panels....
I need one a newer Bimmer one....