OC + Orange pad + Rotary not enough?

[animes2k]

I've got some Hyper Compound on order...

This weekend I decided to give the hood and driver's door on my S2000 a little love. Both areas have been repainted (about three years ago) and last year I had the shop wetsand out some of the orange peel on the door and what looked like possible solvent popping on the hood.

They left some light sanding marks, which the polishing mostly took care of. The problem is some of the sanding marks are right on the side edge of the hood, so while I taped off the fender edge, I was still very careful on the hood edge with the rotary, so I understand if those marks didn't get quite the attention they needed.

The problem is the middle of the hood, where I definitely gave the paint a good full polishing, stepping down from OC+Orange+1200rpm to OP+White+1200rpm to FP2+White+PC/6. In the sun, from exactly the right angle I still see what appear to be sweeping sanding mark holograms. On another part of the hood it appears as if some of the swirls were barely touched. After protecting with AIO + NB (a quickie protection job, for sure), the marks are LESS noticable, but still there.

So... are repaints typically harder than factory paint (excluding Audi/VW/ceramiclear)? I know factory Honda paint can be pretty soft (at least on some colors of the S2000, such as black). I've run into this problem on the trunklid, as well (a lot of the car has seen a respray at one time or another).

The only positive I see with the repaint condition is that I am considering a full wetsanding to remove orange peel and perfect the finish and I should have more leeway with the aftermarket paintwork.

Oh, and an afterthought - any suggestions on removing paint seams in tight corners, like inside the door jambs? Sanding seems a dangerous proposition in such areas.

[ebpcivicsi]

Just my opinion here, but those marks may be *really* hard to remove. When body shops wet sand the clear to remove OP, runs, etc it is always on fresh uncured(soft) paint. Once the paint fully cures it can become *very* hard. Since they wet sanded *after* the paint had fully cured (I am assuming from your post here) the marks could be very difficult to remove.

Personally, I find the OC to be fairly mild. If it were my hood or I was doing work on it, I would go straight to Hi-Temp extreme cut with an orange pad @1500-1700 RPM's, then finish down with whatever you like, the OP/white pad, FP-II via PC, etc would be perfect. If the orange pad/extreme cut doesn't get it, it's going to take some *serious* compound/pad combinations to put a dent in it. Extreme cut finishes down *extremely well IMO/E.

[animes2k]

right, the paint had definitely fully cured. We're talking about three years between respray and wetsanding.

I'll give the hyper a shot when it gets here. thanks for the input.

[DocHoliday]

Not to thread jack, but when a body shop paints a car do they sand the color paint before they put the clear on?

I have some scratches that look like they are under the clear in the color paint.