paint job problems?

Question

i just baught this car and it has good paint but its full of dust like stuff , i think it needs to be wet sanded but i dont know how to do it , so can someone help me ?

Answer 1

You need to find out a couple of things first before you break out the sand paper. How many step paint are you dealing with here? 1, 2 or 3 step paint, enamel or urathanes. Lets assume we are talking at least a two step paint job. This means that the entire car will have to be wet sanded, 1500 grit, to the color coat, we hope no further, and then after you have color sanded evenly you will recoat it with new top coat. After the top coats are applied, wet sanding 1500 grit between coats, you will do one last wet sand with 2500 grit, then buff out the last coat to a mirror finish. Unless this is a vehicle that warrants this much work I would simply do a good machine buff out on it and call it good. It will definetly make the vehicle look a lot better and with less work. Good Luck

Answer 2

If you don't have a clue how to do this, I would not advise you doing it as you can easily sand through the finish and end up costing yourself another paint job.

But how to do it....

Start with 1200, 1500, 2000 grit paper, depending on the dirt, the orange peal, etc. Being a rookie I would start with 2000 grit. Use a sanding block to keep it level, use plenty of water. Sand a few strokes and then wipe the area, you'll see dull areas and shiny areas. dull is high points, shiny is low points. the more you sand, the more you'll turn it all dull. but also this is where you risk going through the clearcoat as you have no clue who painted it, how much clear they put on it, nor what type of clear they used.

After sanding the dirt out, dry the area well. Using a high speed buffer, a waffle foam pad and some 3M Finesse II (white) and high speed buff the area back up. Slow speed is recommend as to not burn through the thinned out clear coat.

After compounding, get another new waffle pad and now wax/polish the area. After that use some swirl remover and go over the area again.

If you have never wet sanded on a car or have never operated a high speed buffer (not an orbital wax polisher), then this is not a job for you.

Any body shop can sand and buff this up. Any good detail shop can also do this. Or you could even find a touch up paint artist on a used car lot and they could do it. All 3 professions do this technique all the time and know what they are doing.