Wet Sanding Tools; Nikken Papers, Meguiar's & KXK Pads

[2black1s]

A little while back Mike sent me some Nikken Sandpaper along with a Meguiar's Sanding Pad and a KXK Sanding Block/Pad. In the past I have always used 3M products for my sanding needs. Mike asked if I would try these products, do a comparison and share my thoughts with the Forum.

I posted a very similar review in an old thread where the wet-sanding and polishing discussion originated but I'm afraid it kind of got lost there so I'm re-posting it here in its own thread. Here we go...



Well, it took about 4-months but I finally got around to a wet-sand job and tried out the products Mike sent me.

I used the Nikken Papers (3000G) along with each of the sanding pads, the Meguiar’s and the KXK Dynamics on a Harley Tour Pak lid that I repaired and painted several months ago. I cheated… I sanded and polished the lid within days of painting it. I think it was actually the following day. I have previously shared my thoughts on sanding too soon after painting… You can do it but you’ll have to do it again once the paint is fully cured as the texture and gloss levels change during that cure period. In an ideal world, waiting 30, 60, or even 90 days prior to sanding would be preferred.

Last week I went back and hand sanded with 3000G, compounded with Meguiar’s 110 and a wool pad on a 3-inch rotary, polished with Meguiar’s 210 and a foam pad on a 3-inch random orbital, and hand applied the LSP - Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax. I also used the rotary with a 1-inch pad for a few tight spots.



For a little background on the test piece, it’s a severely damaged (broken into several pieces) lid for a 2019 Harley Tour Pak. The material is ABS plastic. It was damaged in a garage accident when the bike fell off a lift table. That’s a story in of itself for another time. Anyways, I had this damaged piece laying around and I thought “let’s see if we can fix it”. I had never done a repair of this nature before. The part wasn’t needed but I took on repairing it as a challenge. The repair was performed using a soldering iron to "weld" the ABS plastic. Here’s some pics of the damage and the repair…



The repair was successful and that gets us to this review of the Meguiar’s Sanding Pad, the KXK Dynamics Sanding Pad, and the Nikken Papers.



Meguiar’s Sanding Pad
The Meguiar’s sanding pad appears to be the identical material as the 3M pads I am familiar with. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Meguiar’s pad is manufactured by 3M for Meguiar’s. Dimensionally they vary slightly. The Meguiar's pad is about 1/4" narrower, 1/4 " longer, and 1/16"-1/8" thicker. Functionally they are equals. This type of pad is my preferred tool for wet-sanding a final finish. They are rigid enough to level any paint texture, flexible enough to handle most contours, and will provide a more evenly sanded surface than you could ever achieve with a bare hand.

KXK Dynamics Sanding Pad
I consider this pad as a specialty tool. Measuring ~ 1 1/4” W x 5 1/4” L x 3/4” Thick, it is a more rigid pad than the 3M or Meguiar's pads discussed above but does exhibit some compliance too. This is not a pad that you would use for routine sanding, but can be nice to have for special situations. I found one of those special situations today and the pad performed brilliantly. During my overall sanding I had a few tracers that were too deep to compound out. After my initial compounding the tracers were very obvious and the KXK pad was perfect for sanding out those tracers. A small piece of sandpaper wrapped around the KXK pad worked perfectly.



Nikken Sandpaper
I only used the 3000G today. I actually sanded one half of the lid with the Nikken paper and the other half with the 3M paper I am familiar with. I wanted to see if there was any observable difference between the two. I’d have to say that both performed equally well and are of similar quality... BUT… I did have a few tracers in the half that I sanded with the Nikken that I did not have in the side I sanded with the 3M. Whenever something like this happens you ask yourself “why” and this case is no exception. I can’t put the blame on the paper but did want to mention it for complete disclosure. As clean as you try to be – stuff happens – and that is the likely cause here. Somewhere in my process I picked up a contaminant between the sandpaper and the surface I was sanding.

In summary, each of the products performed as you would expect a world-class quality tool/product would. Are they any better than the 3M products that I'm familiar with? I'm not sure how to answer that question other than stating my experience here... Either will provide the desired, and equal results when combined with a sound process.



Here’s everything I used for this extravaganza. Notice my 30/40-year old dedicated screwdriver next to the spur? I still think it works just as good! LOL. Mind you, the screwdriver tip is very smooth, no sharp edges like a good screwdriver would have.






Here's some pics of the finished product and the paint materials used. Not bad for a spray can job, Heh?






And a few close-ups of the actual repair area...






Thanks again Mike for sending me this stuff... And I'm happy to share my thoughts here.

[Mike Phillips]

A little while back Mike sent me some Nikken Sandpaper along with a Meguiar's Sanding Pad and a KXK Sanding Block/Pad. In the past I have always used 3M products for my sanding needs. Mike asked if I would try these products, do a comparison and share my thoughts with the Forum.



I used the Nikken Papers (3000G) along with each of the sanding pads, the Meguiar’s and the KXK Dynamics on a Harley Tour Pak lid that I repaired and painted several months ago.



Meguiar’s Sanding Pad

The Meguiar’s sanding pad appears to be the identical material as the 3M pads I am familiar with. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Meguiar’s pad is manufactured by 3M for Meguiar’s. Dimensionally they vary slightly. The Meguiar's pad is about 1/4" narrower, 1/4 " longer, and 1/16"-1/8" thicker. Functionally they are equals.

Agree that the 3M hand backing pads are similar.

I find the Meguair's E7200 is a more precise size to match the Nikken half sheets very closely. The 3M backing pads are little undersized. Not a big deal.

I do like the medium fimness of the Meguair's hand backing pads. They are firm enough to knock down orange peel but flexible enough to conform to curved surfaces.

KXK Dynamics Sanding Pad

I consider this pad as a specialty tool.

I agree.

I've tried these larger KXK block a number of times and for me they just don't take the place of the very "simple" Meguiar's E7200.

IF a person is doing a lot of high-end, specialty hand wetsanding - they they have their place. The thing is, the majority of wetsanding work is not high-end specialty work, it's production work and the goal is to get in and get out and the E7200 works for me.

Nikken Sandpaper

I only used the 3000G today. I actually sanded one half of the lid with the Nikken paper and the other half with the 3M paper I am familiar with. I wanted to see if there was any observable difference between the two. I’d have to say that both performed equally well and are of similar quality... BUT… I did have a few tracers in the half that I sanded with the Nikken that I did not have in the side I sanded with the 3M.

I'd encourage you to spend more time with the Nikken. The Nikken "finishing" papers are electronics grade, not automotive grade. I'll just say this, for my time and money, there isn't a better sandpaper or "finishing" paper on the market than the Nikken brand. I have a ton of experience with these papers and in my experience and also my opinion, if I'm sanding paint, the goals are,

• Removes the defects fast - flatten orange peel, surface texture
• Leave behind an uniform shallow sanding mark pattern that buffs out uniformly and fast.
• Leave the most paint on the surface as possible

And to do all three of the above you need precise control over 2 things,

1. Abrasive size
2. Abrasive placement over the paper

So for me, it's Nikken or nothing. But anyone that likes any other sandpaper - as long as it works for you that's all that's important.

Here’s everything I used for this extravaganza. Notice my 30/40-year old dedicated screwdriver next to the spur? I still think it works just as good! LOL. Mind you, the screwdriver tip is very smooth, no sharp edges like a good screwdriver would have.[B][B][B]

Copy that. It's great to have a well-broken in screwdriver to clean a wool pad. Been there done that plenty of times when a spur was not available. That said, given the choice I will always choose a spur over any implement or tool and I've used just about everything a person can list including 6-penny nails and my thumbnail.

AND - I think I have the same, well-worn screwdriver.

Thanks again Mike for sending me this stuff... And I'm happy to share my thoughts here.

Thanks for taking the time to not only use the products but to also stop working, take pictures and then later take MORE TIME to create this thread.

The masses simply won't do this any more. They'll post a sentence and call it good. I know very well what it takes to actually create real new content (like your thread here), it's time consuming. It forces you to think out words and then type them. And again, most people are simply too lazy to do this or they don't possess the skills to do this. I think this is why Facebook Groups are so popular, they don't work for in-depth information with pictures in a linear manner, just use your thumbs to type out a sentence or two and submit.


I also know that people that will read this into the future and knowing you have a long and extensive background as a professional painter, (car painter, not house painter just to clarify for those that can't figure it out), others will appreciate your opinions and insights from your background point of view.


Thanks for sharing and is your norm - the results are freaking amazing!

[2black1s]

... I'd encourage you to spend more time with the Nikken. The Nikken "finishing" papers are electronics grade, not automotive grade. I'll just say this, for my time and money, there isn't a better sandpaper or "finishing" paper on the market than the Nikken brand...

That is my plan. This was a small job where I got to try out the Nikken paper but certainly not enough to make any concrete, in-stone, final evaluation or decision.

And I saw this morning that you have a wet-sanding broadcast this afternoon. How timely is that? I'll be tuning in.

A footnote... The image you included of the top down shot of the lid, although hard to make out here, you can see the orange peel texture of the ceiling/wall in the reflection off the lid in my original image. I thought that was really cool.