wetsanding question

[zarko]

can I remove 2000 Grit wetsanding marks with a pc...whats pads product do you recommend i use .................if this is possible ............



thanks

[NCZ13]

ive used an orange pad and menzerna PG

[AudiOn19s]

Sometimes...but it really depends on the paint. Based on your Avatar if you`re attempting this on an Audi I`m gnonna be a bit negative here and think that it won`t happen without a rotary. Just based on my personal experience with Audi paint.



Meguiars M105 w/ 4` orange pads is going to be your best bet via PC and is going to marr the crap out of the surface but *might* get the sanding marks out.



Andy

[zarko]

thanks..NO i wont be trying that on the audi its for the mercedes i have a few light scratchs that i cant polish out on the hood.....

[Accumulator]

I`ve polished out 2K scratches on clear without a rotary plenty of times, including on Audis. I`ve even done this, on Audis, by *hand*...not exactly fun or time-efficient, but it can be done.



Note that all 2K scratches aren`t the same...the Meguiar`s/Nikken Unigrit paper leaves very uniform scratches but some versions of 3M`s 2K will leave random "tracers" that are a *lot* deeper/worse than 2K and might be problematic. So I`d absolutely stick with the Meguiar`s/Nikken papers, or something from Mirka (also nice and uniform IME). Might want to try 3K or 2500 instead of the 2K.



Assuming the scratches are really/uniformly 2K, the PC will remove them with an aggressive pad/product combo. I`d certainly use 4" pads, nothing bigger. If the clear is hard you might want to use the 3.5" LC PFW pads, which IME take the scratches out quickly and easily.

[JohnKleven]

That`s going to be a lot of work. I recommend get a rotary buffer, and start with a wool compounding pad. It takes a lot of lighting, to be able to see all the scratches, you don`t want to polish them lightly, take it out in the sun and it looks horrible. You`re much better off compounding it with a rotary buffer. It still takes a while to get wetsanding scratches all the way out.





John

[David703]

It can be done with the UDM,with PG.. but a rotory is far faster. Again as someone said.. hard paint maybe not.

[ABQDetailer]

I have a Flex 3401 and a Makita 9227 and the Flex takes 2-3+ passes of what the Makita can do in a single pass. For compounding a wet sanded surface nothing comes close to a rotary. Granted I haven`t used a Cyclo but I doubt it could hang with the rotary or even the Flex for that matter (from what I`ve read).



I`ve polished out 3M Imperial 2000 grit markings (stuff from AutoZone) w/o a problem but since then I`ve switched to Abralon and haven`t looked back. I can go from Mirka Abralon 2000 straight to 4000 and boy does it really make a difference. If you can get your hands on this stuff you should jump on it. You can get smaller quantities on Ebay from the bowling distributors and a number of those sell five packs and they let you choose the grit. So you could do three 2000 and two 4000`s which would be plenty to do an entire car. The Abralon seems to last a good while so it offsets the higher cost (It`s like $3-4 per 6" pad). I tried some Indasa abrasives and they were decent (and did a good enough job) but nothing close to the Mirka product. IE don`t skimp out on your abrasives as the quality makes a big difference. I should add I`m using a 3/32 IR 6" finishing air sander so I can`t comment on how good this stuff is by hand. I would imagine it would be fine though.



HF sells cheap rotaries and cheap wool pads if you don`t want to spring for a nicer rotary setup. It really depends on how much you are gong to use it. I`d recommend springing for a name brand rotary even for a hobbiest. Check Ebay, CL, etc if you don`t want to but new. Always tons of good deals to be had out there...I found my 9227C on CL and got it for less than $100 with some pads thrown in. It had like four hours on it too...cleaned it up and it`s like new!



Good luck.