View Full Version : Frustrating night wet sanding
DSVWGLI
10-20-2006, 02:34 AM
Tonight I thought I would fill some chips on my Jetta then wet sand and polish. I`ve done a little wet sanding for customers with great success, but on my jetta for the first time it was a nightmare. First of all my paint is quite soft, if I gently rub it with my finger tips it micro marrs. So I filled three small chips close to one another on the hood then used 3M 2500 grit wet sand paper with an eraser to level it out. When I wet sand I use a bottle with soapy water to constantly wet the surface I`m sanding. This time I got a lot of scratching I normally never see with wet sanding. To get ride of them I tried the paper by hand with different pressure and it didn`t help, if anything scratched more. Then tried the eraser again with a little more pressure doing a little bigger area now because the scratching is traveling :grrr and it seemed to help some. I then compounded the area to have a look and I saw scratches everywhere that compounding with a cutting pad and SSR3 would not touch. Now I tried a 2" square sponge as a sanding block and went at it again. This made a huge improvement but some minor scratches still remains. I guess when sanding a larger area you need a larger sanding block. Maybe I need finer paper. Whats the finest paper for wet sanding? Anyway I have to be satisfied with what I have now because I`m affraid if I continue I`ll have to repait the hood due to all that wet sanding. Comments and advice welcome.
I highly suggest switching to Four Stars Adbrasive Enhancing Gel when wet sanding. I switched to using this over water and it is amazing. For one you have no more mess all over the garage floor from the water. Your sand paper will last longer and your sanding will be more uniform and gentle on soft paint.
Four Star Abrasive Enhancing Gel (http://www.danase.com/fostabengel.html)
Accumulator
10-20-2006, 12:01 PM
FWIW I found a *HUGE* difference between 3M and Meguiar`s Unigrit brand papers, just astounded me. I`d rather use 2K unigrit than 2500 3M any day. I generally use 2K Unigrit block and 3K Unigrit paper, but my painter gave me some sanding disks (velcro on the back, but I think I`d use them by hand) that are 4K. Haven`t tried them yet though.
Danase- Hmm...that gel sounds interesting.
BostonDirtDog
10-20-2006, 12:09 PM
I highly suggest switching to Four Stars Adbrasive Enhancing Gel when wet sanding. I switched to using this over water and it is amazing. For one you have no more mess all over the garage floor from the water. Your sand paper will last longer and your sanding will be more uniform and gentle on soft paint.
Four Star Abrasive Enhancing Gel (http://www.danase.com/fostabengel.html)
Nice to see another Autpian on here.^
What grit paper are you using?
VWdriver
10-20-2006, 12:34 PM
I highly suggest switching to Four Stars Adbrasive Enhancing Gel when wet sanding. I switched to using this over water and it is amazing. For one you have no more mess all over the garage floor from the water. Your sand paper will last longer and your sanding will be more uniform and gentle on soft paint.
Four Star Abrasive Enhancing Gel (http://www.danase.com/fostabengel.html)
Seconding this advice. I got the gel from danase and while I suspect it reduces the effective grit of the sanding paper it made things a lot easier and the results were much better than with water/megs#00 alone.
DSVWGLI
10-20-2006, 03:24 PM
Thank you all for for advice. I might switch paper and give the gel a try.