Colorsanding article WOW!!!

**Jake11375** · 07-09-2003, 01:43 PM

I read this article on colorsanding and thought I would share it with Autopia. In this particular case it was used to remove orange peel. The results are amazing! :xyxthumbs Colorsanding

**imported_Greg** · 07-09-2003, 02:49 PM

Wow, I would love to try something like this sometime in the future.

**imported_phareous** · 07-09-2003, 02:57 PM

Hmm yes this is good for show cars but not daily cars are it will thin out the thin coat and result in UV failure.

**imported_Greg** · 07-09-2003, 03:07 PM

UV failure? As in ultra-violent light failure? Hmm...well if you don`t have a clearcoat, it`s not a problem to go through it.

**imported_jgv** · 07-09-2003, 03:11 PM

I`m going not only to wet sand but repaint my Volvo hood. It`s great but with all those rock ships I can`t get it perfect. As I`m starting to do paint corrections on my garage I`ll start with my hood. :up

**MidnightHour** · 07-09-2003, 03:11 PM

Is this process ok to do with a clear-coat or can you use it on actual paint only. My car was re-painted back in `98 and it`s almost orange-peel free except for the doors.

**JasonC8301** · 07-09-2003, 03:13 PM

I`m with phareous on this one. Sanding down, cutting and buffing a clear coated/enamel/acrylic car that is protected from the elements (ie garaged weekend warrior that only sees good weather every now and then or a trailored queen (both versions pampered and upkept to the fullest Autopian standards)) is a possiblity to achieve that edge in competition. A daily driver on the other hand, this process I will not recommend. Clear coat or a single stage paint, it doesn`t matter unless the car goes under the paint gun often. The paint is thinned severly while doing this process and removing swirls and other paint problems due to daily driving will wreck havoc on the finish.

Before you know it, in a few short years, a daily driven car given this treatment will face the consquences, paint failure.

I know forum member dlw wet sanded his Jeep (or his former Jeep), it looked stunning, but I would be afraid to drive it to cause more harm than good. It always requires contant upkeep and I would always fear about developing any swirls and trying to remove them on the already thing paint.

It`ll do more harm than good on a daily driver IMHO.

**Lemonxxs** · 07-09-2003, 03:35 PM

Do a search for DLW a member here who has done a lot of wet sanding and has tips and pics......

**Nikon** · 07-09-2003, 03:40 PM

I`ve wet sanded problem areas on my car several times and the final results were great. Someone backed into my car`s rear bumper a couple of years ago and left some bad scratches that compounding didn`t fully remove. I wet sanded the bumber and then followed with the rotary using decreasingly abrasive products. That was more than two years ago and the finish still looks great. (I drive over 30,000KM per year so it has definately not been babied)

I would be hesitant to charge-out and do my entire car all at once. I could see doing each section over a period of time and I don`t think I`d do that to a new car.

I don`t have extensive experience and I haven`t done an entire car but my experiences with colour sanding have all been good. I was extremely careful and also didn`t sand too much, I took the approach that less is better.

Just my .02 cents worth.

Edit: Oh, I also wet sanded each base coat layer on my motorcycle when I repainted it and then followed up with wet sand and polish for the final clear coat. Looked awsome.

**Jake11375** · 07-09-2003, 04:07 PM

Yeah I wouldn`t recommend colorsanding an entire car either, especially the hood, roof and trunk. I think this article gives an excellent step by step process to follow for cars with problem areas like Nikon mentioned. For instance, here recently I had my front bumper and front right fender replaced and painted. The fender came out great but the bumper had a few small bumps on it. I decided to tackle this myself with wetsanding. I used Meg`s 2000 unigrit paper and pad and wetsanded it down to a perfect flawless finish. Now I just have to buff it back to a a high gloss. Since I had good results with that, I`m going to tackle the orange peel on my rear bumper next. I feel more confident about the whole process now that I`ve had a little experience.

**alsey** · 07-09-2003, 04:13 PM

What exactly is the difference between wetsanding and color sanding? Is colorsanding the term used for cars without clearcoats? I need to get half my car wetsanded due to orange peel from a paint job so I was wondering if color sanding and wetsanding were basically the same thing.

Thanks!

**dlw** · 07-09-2003, 05:57 PM

I thought my ears were burning today. Yes, I have wet sanded several cars. Yes, it will take some longevity from your paint. Yes, I did mention in my posts that I was willing to take that risk because I am not afraid to tackle repainting. A car to me is always an ongoing project, as evidenced by the redo I`m working on the Prelude right now (a current thread is going on that project). I would never advise anyone to jump into wet sanding that didn`t understand and accept the consequences. It`s worth it to me, but then again, I`m a sucker for punishment and a great looking car!

**imported_doug** · 07-09-2003, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by alsey

What exactly is the difference between wetsanding and color sanding?

wet sanding is a very general term - wet sanding is useful when you need to help carry the stuff the paper removed away from the paper and the work area, or to provide some lubrication to the process. generally used on harder surfaces and with papers from about 180 grit on up.

Color Sanding is a very specific term referring to "wet sanding an automotive finish to produce an orange-peel-free paint surface prior to final polishing" and using extremely fine abrasives (sand a piece of wood with 2000? NOTHING will happen!

**chris0626** · 07-09-2003, 08:51 PM

I`ve just come into possession of a 1970 VW Kharmann Ghia, which has many sloppy paint touch-ups. (I`ll try to attach a photo here, showing one of the examples.) I think this is a case where wet-sanding is the solution. Is that correct?

**imported_edschwab1** · 07-10-2003, 03:07 AM

From the pictures in the article, it appears to be fresh paint. A car is normally wet sanded and compounded after being painted, to bring out the shine.

Unless the car`s paint has major problems I would leave it alone and not wetsand.

Eric