First paint burn

[hawkigrad]

Today I was working on a friend's KIA Soul and I burned a nickel sized spot in the paint. I was using Trizact 3000 grit wet sand discs which I have used many times before. I'll include a photo but its hard to see what's going in since I took it on my camera phone with flash.

So this is how it happened. I had clayed the car and was polishing with light cut pad and total swirl remover. I noticed a small yellow streak on the lower part of her door which is shown in the photo. I grabbed the clay bar thinking it was paint or gunk on the paint since it felt rough to the touch. the clay did nothing. It doesn't look or feel like a typical scratch as its flat against the paint around it. my finger nail did not catch on it nor did it look like the metal below the paint due to its yellow tint.

SO I decided to hit it lightly with the trizact to remove just a bit of clear to see if that would help. within seconds the damage was done. I realize now was I was looking at was a scratch already through the paint but I have a couple of lingering questions.

1. what is the yellow color which I can also see where I burned the paint?
2. why was there very little to no clear coat around the scratch? I've used that same trizact on many cars for 30+ seconds only to put a haze in the clear
3. would a paint thickness gauge have saved me if I had measured first? I assume so.
4. do these cars have thin or soft paint?

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

[Andr3wilson]

Looks like you hit the primer from the pic!

Would the gauge have saved you? Most likely

Paint soft? I have never found paint sand easier because it was softer tbh.

[CowboyTruckn]

Could be the plastic. My old foreword had some plastic panels that were yellow before painting

[AeroCleanse]

I'm never going to wetsand unless I check the paint thickness.

[dcjredline]

Sounds like you were using a machine to sand?

Aero: good idea never to sand without a gauge but if you do it by hand lightly you should be ok.

[Flash Gordon]

I will never wet sand unless it's someone that I consider a friend and knows of the risks

[Flash Gordon]

Aero: good idea never to sand without a gauge but if you do it by hand lightly you should be ok.

I've never used a gauge. I stop sanding right before the orange peal goes away
Call me lucky or stupid. So far so good

[Evan.J]

Today I was working on a friend's KIA Soul and I burned a nickel sized spot in the paint. I was using Trizact 3000 grit wet sand discs which I have used many times before.

What was your application process? Machine or hand?

I'll include a photo but its hard to see what's going in since I took it on my camera phone with flash.

So this is how it happened. I had clayed the car and was polishing with light cut pad and total swirl remover. I noticed a small yellow streak on the lower part of her door which is shown in the photo. I grabbed the clay bar thinking it was paint or gunk on the paint since it felt rough to the touch. the clay did nothing. It doesn't look or feel like a typical scratch as its flat against the paint around it. my finger nail did not catch on it nor did it look like the metal below the paint due to its yellow tint.

SO I decided to hit it lightly with the trizact to remove just a bit of clear to see if that would help. within seconds the damage was done. I realize now was I was looking at was a scratch already through the paint but I have a couple of lingering questions

.
What is your definition of lightly? How many passes and pressure?

1. what is the yellow color which I can also see where I burned the paint?

Might have been in the clear but its hard to say

2. why was there very little to no clear coat around the scratch? I've used that same trizact on many cars for 30+ seconds only to put a haze in the clear

OEM clear coat is very very thin to begin with. On average you will fine that the total paint thickness of a car will be anywhere from 3.0 - 4.0 mils. The thickness of the clear it self is no thicker than one standard sheet of a sticky note. Mike has stated that you can safely remove 0.5 mils before you go through. What was the history of the paint though? Has it been polished before? If so then that number drops even lower now. Knowing the history of a car is a good thing to keep in mind

3. would a paint thickness gauge have saved me if I had measured first? I assume so.

Absolutly it would have. taking measurements and seeing how little paint was there and you would have never touched the paint with sand paper

4. do these cars have thin or soft paint?

Hard to say thats why a test spot is key with whatever you work on.

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

[hawkigrad]

The trizact was on my cordless power drill. In writing this and thinking through my steps I realized what I did and yes its embarrassing. I'm still scratching my head as to why the scratch in the car was yellow in color as it was right below the door so I think its metal below. Also every scratch in the paint I've seen always shows depth whereas this one truly looked like paint on the clear as it was flat and rough. Regardless, I grabbed the bottle from a Langa touch-ups kit I had laying around at one point thinking I might be able to remove the "yellow" paint then I sprayed detailer over it to clean and I left it for a few minutes thinking about what to try next which turned out to be the trizact. Since the langa product is a white cream I think I forgot that it's really just paint thinner so I softened the paint it appears right before I hit it with the trizact.

Already ordered a paint thickness gauge anyway as I'm still interested to see what it shows around the scratch. Her paint is a metallic black so I'm sure trying to feather spray paint the repair may not work out. I have a friend that touches up cars for dealerships so ill be calling him next week to fix my blunder.

Thanks all.

[AeroCleanse]

I've never used a gauge. I stop sanding right before the orange peal goes away
Call me lucky or stupid. So far so good

You have more courage than I do