Wetsanding and Polishing after Painting - Page 2

StumpyDetailing · 08-04-09, 09:31

Hey Guys,

I always seem to forget this forum is here on my busy daily travels, besides, posting in this forum should be informative, which I hope mine are as informative to on-lookers as your guy's posts are.

Now, keep in mind its hard to portray your thoughts on here without writing a novel, I'll portray as much as I can.

When I say I have been detailing hardcore for 9 years, I've actually been doing it for over 15 years.

I'm one of the lucky ones that has grown up with cars, auto-body, bondo, paint, primer, sandpaper, and all of the great things in life since I was a wee toddler. My dad started me in this stuff as soon as I knew what a car was... So by 8 or 9 I was already painting peices, sanding peices, primering, blocksanding, you know.

By 15 I was really getting into cars so I decided I would make $$$ the fastest and easiest way I knew, with the least risk.... Cleaning cars, claybarring, and applying wax. Did this starting at 14 or 15. I have an older brother that was into the VW Scene with some very nice cars, so I got to hang out and everyone noticed I cleaned cars really well...

As well, my dad had a Makita Polisher since before I can remember, and he taught me how to use it *properly* by the time I was 9 or 10 years old... Polishing 50's cars mostly, as well as his fully restored '31 Chev Panel Van.

Yadda Yadda, this isn't about detailing, its about the process after a car is painted, reason I am asking the official term

As soon as I turned 16 I had a car, of course. 1997 VW Golf. Black. Beautiful car, and after a few years I learned how to polish it about 50%..

I have done some painting of my own, here are a couple pics of my...fourth....sixth? car, I painted this almost 5 years ago, so I was 18 or 19 then...

FOR THE RECORD: I knew I was not doing this as well as I could have, it was my daily driver so I had to borrow my dad's car while I did it. I also worked full-time and detailed part-time while I was doing this. So that is why I used the army colors as my initial primer.

Ok, here is the car when I bought it:

Hated the red so badly I needed to change it quick while I searched for a space to do a paint-job properly... So rattle-cans, army colors, and some masking tape and I had it at least NOT RED!

Started getting it ready for a real paint-job... Big plans... two-tone silver and blue... round headlight conversion... fun times

Previous owner hacked the car up REALLY badly.. Rolled-out and cut fenders, with bad fender flares BOLTED on.. Bad big-bumper conversion with holes in the fenders for LAG BOLTS... bad news

Every dent was removed, including sunroof dents:

Roof was sanded

More dents filled:

The entire bottom of the door was Bondo from previous owners... I couldn't bear to sand through it all to find no door left so I patched over it as best as I could...

My dad's Porsche 914 I had to detail after to clean all the dust out of! (Car was pulled out whenever I painted of course). Trunklid had tons of small dents...

Bodywork done on the fender, primering:

Sanding the first coat of primer, threw some nicer wheels on just for fun:

Painting stage:

Now the horrible part is after all that I was sick and freakin tired of working on this thing because I wanted to DRIVE IT! 180hp motor in a 2000lb car... and the fastest car I've ever driven was a GMC Savanna Van. You can see the impatience of an 18 year old at this point.

So, Final picture completed car wetsanded and polished:

And, I am embarassed to say, I NEVER DID FINISH! Didn't wetsand this section:

Ok, now that you've gone this far, I can tell you.

I painted the entire car, beginning to end, in Rattlecans. Yes, Rattlecans.

High-build primer was air-gun sprayed 2 part PPG primer, but the actual paint was rattle-cans from Canadian Tire of all places.

A couple other wetsanding endeavors of mine:

This was a friend of mine who painted his car in his garage, with an actual spray gun and all that... I think he copied me....but hey...imitation is another form of flattery!

Orange peel was BAD!!!

But Stumpy is here to fix it!

Break it down and its real simple... Sand the peaks until they meet the valleys... then you're done!

My Rig at the time: I think I was 20 or 21 by now...

After sanding before polishing:

After polishing:

More after pictures:

His dad is in the reflection... as are everything else in his garage

I have wetsanded a LOT more than just these... So believe me when I say, I have a decent amount of experience building, and I want to expand on it.

I want to work in a body-shop, that is for sure...

StumpyDetailing · 08-04-09, 09:40

So, having that out of the way...

Is there a possible market for a for-hire wetsand/polisher? Would paint shops contract that out? Or would the painter be doing most of that?

I sort of took-over the after-paint work on that '55 Buick due to the painter not having the tools, experience, or confidence to wetsand and polish the car.

To be perfectly honest, they were scared to touch it... He did try to wetsand a panel, with some nice tools, 3m 1500grit paper and a 6.5" Orbital air-sander...

But he would do one pass, make it dull, and think it's done... He knows there are 4 or 5 heavy coats of clear on there, PLENTY for some wet-block-sanding, but it seemed he didn't want to risk it..

I came in and decided I would carefully do it... and do it I did, and it turned out beautifully!

After finishing it, having about 18-20 hours into it, I realized I could make a LOT more money than the $40/h I was charging... Considering I was turning this mediocre paintjob into a work of art, I could see myself justifying $100/h or more....

Thats where I'd like some EXPERIENCED professionals opinions.

I'm not in THIS forum to talk to backyard know-it-alls, I want to talk to people that actually have experienced themselves what it is like to burn through clear (Yes I have done it more times than I'd like to admit, but that was many years ago and I have always learned from my mistakes).

If I was a painter and did this as well, would I be better off? I'm damn near asking for life-advice!

Thanks for any input you guys can have, please send me a PM if you have spare time and are willing to share some insights, my e-mail address is "gostumpy" @ "shaw.ca" if you'd rather chat that way, or hell, I'm on facebook and MSN, let me know via PM if anyone wants to talk!

I'll check back soon!
Tyler Fuller

Jakerooni · 08-05-09, 06:15

Any good painter will wetsand his own work. And any smart person would know not to ever wetsand someone else's fresh paint

It's a fools foly to get involved with that. Unless you really know the painter and how they processed the piece. I don't get the point really to this thread. If your all balls set to the wall about going after a wetsanding contract or position what does it matter at all what any of us think? Just go out and do it.

StumpyDetailing · 08-05-09, 09:34

(I like to hear opinions from many people, sorta like brainstorming online, maybe?)

I made this thread for a reason

Too many people spend thousands of dollars getting their cars painted, but since painters these days are not *always* true professionals, they just spray the car with a nice paint and call it a day... So many people have hot rods that haven't been properly wet sanded... They drive around with $4000 paintjobs not realizing that it can look sooo much better with just a bit more work...

So many that I can see a market in that.. Yes it can be a dangerous one, wet sanding another painter's work.. however I believe the reward is worth the risk..

So I made a thread to get opinions, and so far it is working well!

StumpyDetailing · 08-05-09, 04:28

Aha, figured out another reason I made this thread...

My wife is getting sick of me talking about work stuff

Flashtime · 08-05-09, 05:04

Nice!

Come join us here:

Auto body and car paint tips, techniques, and information
Refinish Network - Auto Body Repair Community

*Great bunch of fellas just like here.

This would be perfect in the "Show and Tell," section. And the "Color Sanding" section as well.

Sweet job man! I understand the effort you've put in!

Guitarist302008 · 08-30-09, 08:31

Are you talking about colorsanding? That's what i've always heard it called... i've done some of it... on MUCH cheaper paint jobs, but I would never do a car that had a paint job that expensive unless I had worked under a company or someone who had done it for a lonnnnnnng time. What you have done so far seems to look good from the pics though, just be careful anywhere where there's a bend or sharp edge... it'll burn right through before you even notice.

Superior Fine · 09-03-09, 10:14

I got my start colorsanding freshly painted cars for small bodyshops. Its all I did. My rig was whatever my Milwaukee buffer, extension cord, rags, pads, compound, polish and sandpaper would fit in.

Most of the work was colorsanding only the refinished panels. I then started offering to make the rest of the paint look good with a quick polish and wax. Then came engines then interiors.

So to answer your question, yes there is a market for it.

OK now the bad news. You will not make a ton of money doing it unless it is for super nice show cars.

Most shops have a min wage guy sanding and buffing cars. Most insurance jobs don't include (or include very little ) time for colorsanding.

To make money you have to be good and quick. If you find shops as I did that will throw 6 to 10 panels at you per day you can make some nice $$$.

5150kon · 09-04-09, 09:55

i know the body shop chains usually jst hire detailers and they are the ones who also do the color sanding. and they generally dont make a whole lot. i know thats where i started out.i cant say the same for the shops that do custom work, for i havent worked with them before.