wet-sanding before polishing

[Red Wolf]

I have searched the forums and found that Mothers was the clay of choice that is widely available. Now I have acouple of questions:



1. how many cars will 1 bar do the box says 3 other people have said 5

2. I have read references to people cutting up the clay, How many pieces? does this help the longetivity of the clay?

3. Is showtime a good lubricant and general QD? or should I get final Inspection?





Also is 3m`s clay superior? equal? worse? I can order most 3m products locally.



Just to confirm something I read on here Simoniz has a 3 sq foot Microfibre drying towel at Canadian Tire,at least some stores.



Thanks for any help.

[Jngrbrdman]

I would say that it depends on the condition of the car. I get an average of 2 cars out of one bar. Sometimes more and sometimes less. It really depends on how bad the car is. Even if the clay only lasted for one car I would still consider it a deal. Clay is such a wonderful invention. I wish I had discovered it 5 years ago. It would have saved me some moolah.

[grease]

When is wet-sanding a bad idea other then when the paint is too thin?
I working on a car that had a glass panel fall out of the garage door one night. It left a few deep gouges, and in one of the gouges it looks like it might have actually chipped the paint. The chip may be 2 mm`s across at the most, but its there.

Can wet sanding ever lift the paint, so to speak? Can it actually make chips worse? The scratches surround the chip. Im very inexperienced in this sense, anything Ive wetsanded before has been extremely straightforward.

Thanks for any help!

Its funny, I just bought a bunch of products from the store in person about a month ago. Noone mentioned at the time that things were bad. I definitely would have bought more. Hope things work out well for everyone involved!

[grease]

Thanks for the help!

[PorscheGuy997]

When is wet-sanding a bad idea other then when the paint is too thin?

Can wet sanding ever lift the paint, so to speak? Can it actually make chips worse? The scratches surround the chip. I`m very inexperienced in this sense, anything I`ve wet sanded before has been extremely straightforward.

When sanding, you are removing part of the thing layer of paint.

Unfortunately, wet sanding will probably make it worse. If you were to sand the area, the edges of the chip will become thin and bring about new problems.

The only way to repair the area would be to use some touch up paint to fill in the chip. Then, if you`d like, you can lightly sand the area to sort of blend in the paint. Polishing will be necessary afterwards.

(It`s a holiday weekend and many people are taking time off from the forums. Surely others will chime in later.)

[grease]

Yea, I realized that after I posted...living in Canada, you dont always remember Independence Day.

Its black paint, so touching it up should be easier then a metallic. The owner has said he`s going to have the panel repainted, but Id like to give him an alternative. Thanks for the answer!