animeS2K

(see pics a few posts down)

Well, I started to do it at least.

I picked a spot I know has seen a respray at some point and had heavier orange peel (OP) and went very gently at it with the 1500 paper and plenty of soapy water.

Given, I'm no noob when it comes to wetsanding, but I'm not an expert either and this was MY car I was working on... I did the rear bumper, driver's side from the wheel well back to about the tail light, top to bottom, feathering back as I got further towards the rear (where there's considerably less OP).

After checking my work, I moved on to the rotary, Optimum Compound and eventually an orange light cutting pad around 1000-1200rpm since it's plastic - didn't want to overheat it!

Well, many passes later (about 4-5) I had polished out the sanding marks and stepped down to green polishing pad and FPII to smooth it out.

MAN does it ever look good! Smoooooth, super shiny... not perfectly flat, but much improved.

I may just go ahead and map out where I'd like to reduce OP and touchup scratches on the car and take it a little bit at a time over the summer. That small area took me about 1.5hr. I'd REALLY like to have a paint thickness gauge, but I don't have an extra $400-$500...

Maybe if I get two paying details I'll put the money towards one.

I'm excited and yes I realize the possible consequences of taking off too much clear. At least MOST of the car has seen a respray at one point in its life, so it's not like the paint is super thin.

Worst case, I get it resprayed in a few years - I'd love to have a candy silverstone with heavy flake

wanabe

great report...

but i wanna see some pics!!

and you are right on- no down side to this...

darkknight1999

Nice job

Here's a few tips on wet-sanding:

You must use a padded sanding block. Something like this:



As you wet-sand you really want to make sure you sand in smooth even strokes, no circles. As you wetsand you want to slowly step it up from 1500 up to 2000 or even 2500. Just because a polish says it can remove 1500 grit sand marks doesn't mean you should try Its marketing. And it my work but you'll be there a long time trying to make it work. As you sand you want to sand everything in a side to side direction. Then once that's done wash off the sanding residue. Resand the area again but go up and down over the same surface, and do the same thing again washing the area. Then look at the sanding marks if they still look deep... or hit them quick with a wool pad and compound. If they come right out your good to go, if not resand them in angle stroke with a high count grit sand paper.

Then hit it with the wool pad then then work your way down to the polishing pad.

animeS2K

Thanks John.

I've got a few dual-layer sanding blocks (firm on one side, softer on the other) and 1500 and 2000 grit paper and typically work in the way you've laid out. You aren't kidding about being there all day with a foam pad and Optimum Compound. I've got some Hyper Compound on the way, but I think a wool pad would negate the need to use that in most instances.

I'll see about getting some pictures, but I think I'll work on a different area that'll show it better. You're almost working UNDER the car in the spot I did.

I've also got a couple of scratches that I cleaned up and hit with touchup that I plan on wetsanding and polishing out - especially one that REALLY bugs me and is quite large on my spoiler.

Now if I could figure out a "safe" way to get rid of the obvious paint seams that are tucked into the door jambs... grrr... tight corners, maybe if I carefully taped off the areas? hmm...

s2ksimon

once you realize this, i'm happy

as Honda clear is the thinest in the business

animeS2K

If it weren't repainted I'd be more concerned. And I think Subaru beats honda in the thin clear department - not to mention thin base, too. EVERY little scratch on the Subaru shows primer

s2ksimon

oh really... interesting..

I'm off to check out subu customers to test this..

animeS2K

hehehe... at least on my WRX that's the issue. I'd discussed the paint over on autopia and one of the well-respected guys over there (Accumulator?) said he wouldn't even touch the Subie with a rotary so I'll trust his judgement.

animeS2K

ok, so I attacked a particularly bad spot today, in addition to the scratch on my spoiler that's been bugging the heck out of me. But I didn't take pics of that.

Here are the pics from today. Took about an hour to do this area, from the trimline down to textured paint on the rocker panel, faded back to about the center of the driver's rear wheel well, didn't touch the door.

BEFORE





AFTERS








So, the door is pretty rough - not terrible, but I think I might hit it. As well, the rocker panel under the door is in pretty orange peely shape. You can see from the pics that there are a few defects that aren't about to sand out

I got the paint pretty well evenly scuffed, but even then there's still OP. I think THIS amount I can live with. I have to get a better look in the daylight to see if I reduced my depth significantly. If so, I'm going to leave all but the worst areas alone.

Process was:
wetsand 1500
wetsand 2000
polish Optimum Compound, yellow durastrand pad ~1400rpm (x a lot)
polish Menzerna FP2, green polishing pad ~1000rpm (x1)
quickie Natty's Blue

A side note... The wife is very understanding of the detailing obsession, but don't get started on a project forgetting that you planned to get dinner out. She soooo loves me

darkknight1999

They do that on purpose. That section of the door has extra clearcoat on it as well, for protection.

The big companies that paint cars by the thousands actually build orange peel into the paint process to hide any imperfections in the panel with paint.