Wetsanding my Grand national just not sure.

[nitrovette]

My paint is 10 yrs old , PPG paint was used still looks good but has have some orange peel in it along with light scrathes not to the paint. Talked to a painter local to me close to Jacksonville fl and he did try a spot on the fender and the sanding marks came out ok not sure what grit he used, said ho could get the orange peel out and it looked like it had a good amount of clear on it. But he will not back it up if he goes through the clear. So just not sure if this is the way to go when you put some thing next to the car you can read every thing on it so its have a good finish . He said he would start with 1000- 1500- 2000 uses a few different compunds , said he uses but works best to remove the sanding marks, would machine sand and hand sand remove all the bumpers molding, door handles stuff like that. has been painting for a long time what do you guys think is this taking to much of a chance, I payed 4500.00 when it was painted and know it cost a lot more now.Also if he goes throgh the clear can clear just be sprayed over that spot and sanded?

[FUNX650]

Hi and welcome to AGO.

First post, huh?

About the painter in your posting:

If he's been painting for awhile, he should have the experience and knowledge to repair "a going through the clear-coat" incident.

Is your concern with the pricing of the wet-sanding and finishing to a show-car paint surface,along with, if it should happen, the additional cost of a respray on affected areas?

If so concerned, a second, third, or more consultations/estimates with other painters could be in order.

Grand Nationals are nice vehicles---just how nice you want yours to be is really your decision.

Bob

[Mike Phillips]

Hi nitrovette,

Welcome to Autogeek Online!

I'm pretty sure you're the guy that e-mailed me in the last day or two with the same project...

Good to see you join the forum, you'll get a lot of great feedback and suggestions from our forum community.

[Mike Phillips]

He said he would start with 1000- 1500- 2000 uses a few different compounds , said he uses but works best to remove the sanding marks, would machine sand and hand sand remove all the bumpers molding, door handles stuff like that.

#1000 is pretty aggressive in my opinion for a project like this, if it were me I would rather take a little more time, work a little more carefully and start at #1500

Your car being older has a lot of larger, flat panels and this makes dampsanding a cinch and then do hand sanding for any small, thin panels or hard to reach areas.

has been painting for a long time what do you guys think is this taking to much of a chance,

This is a decision only you can make. How important is it to you to have a flat finish? By flat I mean sanded flat for maximum D.O.I., not matte.

I think you said you were going to try to contact the painter and ask him how much clear material he sprayed? This is a good idea, try to find out if he thinks he sprayed enough clear paint to safely sand and cut.

Also if he goes through the clear can clear just be sprayed over that spot and sanded?

Yes. The quality of the work is completely dependent upon the skill of the painter.

We have a sanding class coming up here in Stuart on July 10th, you could learn how to do it yourself or your painter buddy could attend and check out the newest products and techniques for sanding and buffing.


I have a few articles on the topic of wetsanding in my article list,

Wet-Sanding

New - It's the person that does the wet-sanding, cutting and buffing that makes or breaks the paint job -Mike Phillips

Damp-Sanding Tools, Tips and Techniques by Mike Phillips

Meguiar's 6" Unigrit Sanding and Finishing Discs

Wet-sanding, Color-sanding & Damp-sanding

Meguiar's New 3 Inch Professional Headlight & Spot Repair Kit

RIDS and Feathersanding - A Highly Specialized Technique by Mike Phillips

Wet-sanding - Fresh Paint vs Factory Paint

Basic Hand Sanding Techniques

The Rule of Thumb

Fight or Flight Method for Gaging Surface Temperature

New - Two Schools of Thought when Hand Sanding - Straight-lines or Crosshatch Pattern

The difference between 3M's Hookit and Hookit II Hook-N-Loop Interface Systems

List of Sanding Discs at Autogeek.net

If it has paint... it gets polished...

Removing Orange Peel & Sanding Marks with the Griot's ROP and the Wolfgang Twins

How long will a half sheet of wet/dry sandpaper last before it stops cutting and you need to replace it?

Can an air-powered DA Sander be used to polish paint?

[Perfections]

I agree with mike 1000 grit is pretty aggressive to start with unless there is plenty of clear to work with, fresh 1000 grit removes a lot of paint, if it was fresh paint that would be one thing but in 10 yr old I'd start with 1500 dampsanded taping off any high points, another thing to think about if you start aggressive and don't get out those sand marks when you go to compound/polish it's going to be difficult to get out 1k sanding marks

[Blackthorn One]

You can use 1000 to start with if the orange peel is really bad, just to knock down the really high spots a bit, to save yourself some time, but you would not try to get it FLAT with 1000 and then attempt to remove those scratches with progressively finer grits. If you still see some of the orange peel after using the 1000, it should be ok. I've done it, and it does save a little time, but you must be really careful and have the self control not to get carried away and think you will get all the orange peel out with that one grit.

[nitrovette]

The orange peel is not real bad and its only really on the sides the top areas look good just some surface scracthes and did talk to one more guy who said 1000 is a lot to start with better to go with 1500 he is going to look at it for me next week thanks for every one helping with this.

[andyo]

just wetsanded my grand national, used 2000 grit then 3000 grit on a da sander. i painted it over the winter and had it sit for a few months now. tomarrow i will compound and polish using m105 and ultimate polish with a meg's g110 polisher.

[nitrovette]

Well went and talked to a painter my friend told me about, and he looked at it and said he did not think it would look much better that the paint looked good and with all the stuff that would need cleaning after that ,I should just leave it alone. He said paint jobs have some peel in them and it was not that bad on my car for a 10 yr old paint job ,He also said which ,I am not sure about that the clear coat provides uv protection from the sun is that true? And that its hard to removes sanding marks from a black car when the clear is hard.So I am not sure if,I will do anything. I can take a chance with the other guy but with if he goes through he will now fix it. I would sure have to pay more then.

[sabrina]

I agree with mike 1000 grit is pretty aggressive to start.