Question for Mike Phillips???

[Sellncars]

Hey Mike,

How are you? Hopefully well. My question is about Mills of paint, whats the lowest number that you would attempt to wet sand on? My mother owns a 2003 Toyota Camry that has some pretty bad spots from a sprinkler somewhere, i tried the clay, paint cleaners, PPG wax and grease remover, nothing happening. I wet sanded the hood at the end on last fall and 98 percent of the garbage came out, now i want to do the roof and trunk. The roof is under 6 mills.

Thanks

[Wax Gorilla]

6 mills on a Toyota Should be fine. I just hope you can get the car to "STOP" where you want it. - I would let my Mother In Law drive a Toyota but never my Mother !

[Mike Phillips]

Hey Mike,

My question is about Mills of paint, whats the lowest number that you would attempt to wet sand on?

First, pant thickness gauges measure total film build, not just the clear layer, so while they are a great indicator of overall paint thickness you don't know how thick the important layer is and thats the top coat thickness. So you can't really pick an arbitrary number.

My mother owns a 2003 Toyota Camry that has some pretty bad spots from a sprinkler somewhere, i tried the clay, paint cleaners, PPG wax and grease remover, nothing happening.

Have you tried the new M105 or Ultimate Compound? These use SMAT and this is about as aggressive as you can get and as aggressive as you want to get but a good approach to try for below surface defects.

The important thing to keep in mind has the root cause of the problem been eliminated? By this I mean it wouldn't do any good to remove water spots from a sprinkler if the car could dimply be parked next to the sprinkler again?

I wet sanded the hood at the end on last fall and 98 percent of the garbage came out, now i want to do the roof and trunk. The roof is under 6 mills.

Thanks

That sounds pretty thin to me... considering this is a daily driver, grocery getter type car and that the defects are on the roof, out of an easy line of sight, maybe just improving them with M105 or UC would be a better option for the service life of the car versus removing too much material off a horizontal surface exposed to the sun. That is unless you're doing this as a way to practice?


A 2003 Toyota Camry is a nice transportation car and all but I don't know if the visual benefit would outweigh the risk for the value you would get out of it. The value would of course be you or your Mother's opinion.


When I did this BMW for Bimmerfest in 2002 the paint on the roof measured around 4 mills and I chose to only use a light cleaner/polish with a rotary buffer to remove swirls and restore clarity.

RIDS and Feathersanding

[Sellncars]

6 mills on a Toyota Should be fine. I just hope you can get the car to "STOP" where you want it. - I would let my Mother In Law drive a Toyota but never my Mother !

Thanks Wax Gorilla,

This is the last year before Toyota decided to start killing people. This car still has a throttle cable, why in the world would any auto manufacturer steer away from cables? I can say, even in my drag cars, I've never had a cable stick or break.

[Sellncars]

First, pant thickness gauges measure total film build, not just the clear layer, so while they are a great indicator of overall paint thickness you don't know how thick the important layer is and thats the top coat thickness. So you can't really pick an arbitrary number.





Have you tried the new M105 or Ultimate Compound? These use SMAT and this is about as aggressive as you can get and as aggressive as you want to get but a good approach to try for below surface defects.

The important thing to keep in mind has the root cause of the problem been eliminated? By this I mean it wouldn't do any good to remove water spots from a sprinkler if the car could dimply be parked next to the sprinkler again?





That sounds pretty thin to me... considering this is a daily driver, grocery getter type car and that the defects are on the roof, out of an easy line of sight, maybe just improving them with M105 or UC would be a better option for the service life of the car versus removing too much material off a horizontal surface exposed to the sun. That is unless you're doing this as a way to practice?


A 2003 Toyota Camry is a nice transportation car and all but I don't know if the visual benefit would outweigh the risk for the value you would get out of it. The value would of course be you or your Mother's opinion.


When I did this BMW for Bimmerfest in 2002 the paint on the roof measured around 4 mills and I chose to only use a light cleaner/polish with a rotary buffer to remove swirls and restore clarity.

RIDS and Feathersanding

Yes Mike i have the M105 and did try it on the trunk after the clay bar, didn't touch it, then tried the 3M Heavy cut with the same results. I think your right, don't mess with it, it does have alot of shine and almost all defects are gone on the parts that matter. I unfortunately do have alot of wet sanding experience, i have a friend that tries to paint, does an ok job, but doesn't have any pride, so he doesn't wet sand and buff, so i had to learn the hard way, a person gets good when they sell alot of cars that they drive themselves and are anal about paint and shine.

Thanks again,
Sellncars