Wet Sanding

[wranglerguy]

I am planning on painting the hood of my car. I was told by someone that I needed to wet sand my hood before I paint it. Would something like this work?

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/p-12829-15974.aspx

 

[suprarx7nut]

Either that or use a bucket of water and a regular old sanding block.

 

[slidebabyslide]

yeah, just a bucket of water or a hose. try to do it when there is some shade but you also need to see what you are doing.

 

[super.secret.supra.club]

better to do it with a hose and a bucket of water, make sure you add some luandry detergent to the water. it help[s to remove any kind of grease or oil that may have gotten on there. plus it makes it more easier to sand.

use 1500 grit before and after priming, then spray your base coat (3 coats is ussually best), wet sand again with 2000 to remove the orange peel, next, clear coat (2 coats is best). let cure for 24 hours dependeing on temperature. after curing wetsand and buff for the ultimate high gloss!!!

ed.d.

 

[RazoE]

have a dry towel to wipe the surface also. Paint looks darker than it is when its' wet, and will actually look glossy, once you wipe it dry, you can see that the paint is dull and gray.

 

[super.secret.supra.club]

as far as drying it up goes, use microfiber. no dust and no lint. my compressor with a air nozzle helped to get into the hard to reach places too.

ed.d.

 

[Poodles]

You MUST presoak the sandpaper overnight for it to work correctly. Yep, a little dish soap in the bucket is needed.

It's labor intensive, that's why new cars have such shitty finishes as they no longer do any wet sanding...

 

[EdT.Mk3]

Just to add on, I went and purchased a flexible sanding block to make things a little easier on myself. Ed.D recently shot 1 coat on the passenger side fender again, this time it turned out a lot better with no orange peel. It could be because we've shot it before, and this is the double dipped/wet sanded result.

Resolution is low by my standards, but here's a pic I just took if it helps. I can't remember if he 2k'd this one, maybe he'll chime in since he was doing that.


For the compressor, watch for occasional buildups of water in the tank due to moisture in the air. It's bound to happen at some point. I once did a spray dry of a headlight cover, shot some primer, only to watch it bubble up cause of a trace amount of water. F-bomb'd.

 

[SUPERIUM]

scuff it with 600-800 grit. Using anything higher will cause the surface to be too smooth and the paint will not stick properly.

 

[jonny87turbo]

When i Painted my car i sanded it down with 500 grit. If you sand with a finner grit sand paper it will just take longer to sand down. Like using 1000 and up. The primer or sealer will cover every thing up. The nice thing about using a sealer is you dont have to sand it down. You can paint it after the sealer fully cures.

 

[tookwik4u89]

scuff it with 600-800 grit. Using anything higher will cause the surface to be too smooth and the paint will not stick properly.

+1 I wouldn't use 1500 before or after primer, maybe between coats for dust nibs.

 

[EdT.Mk3]

...400 grit before priming...

Fixed that for ya, since that's been the method thus far. 1500 between the coats, and 2000 before the clear followed by buff & compound, etc.

 

[super.secret.supra.club]

When i Painted my car i sanded it down with 500 grit. If you sand with a finner grit sand paper it will just take longer to sand down. Like using 1000 and up. The primer or sealer will cover every thing up. The nice thing about using a sealer is you dont have to sand it down. You can paint it after the sealer fully cures.

although true, i personally found the final out come to be much better quality after sanding it with 1000. yes, it did take a little more elbow grease to wet sand super smooth but it looked hell of a lot better. i guess it more of personal taste and how much effort you want to put in at this point.

ed.d.