Removing mild orange peel via wetsanding

[454Casull]

Is there any way to judge whether a finish can be safely wetsanded to flatness (i.e. without compromising the clear) without using a paint thickness gauge?

 

[jono20]

I take back what I said before. I decided I don`t have enough experience with wet sanding to offer input. I think you could probably do it by grit though, if you sand for a little while with like 2000grit and theyre still there, I`d just stop. itll still look better even with a little OJ left.



Also:



:showpics

 

[JohnKleven]

You can take a sharpie pen and draw a straight line. The sharpie will go into the valleys in the clear. Sand the line until most or all of the sharpie is gone. This is a fairly easy and safe way to wetsand. I hope this helps.



John

 

[454Casull]

I would assume that sanding until all of the shiny stuff is gone would do the same. But, this can only be done with the assumption that the lowest level of clear is higher than the highest level of color PLUS a healthy margin. On some OPed paint, this may not be the case.

 

[Accumulator]

I'll risk sounding like Chicken Little here and say that I don't think you can say it's "safe" without further info.



Yeah, I know...if you only knock down the peaks you're left with the same (overall/total) thickness that the valleys had, at least before you take out the sanding marks. But if the orange peel is a matter of texure in the basecoat, that could mean too-thin clear.



The OE finish on some vehicles (e.g., my MPV) have barely enough clear for a few mild corrections...*ever*. Hit that with 2K and by the time you polish out the sanding marks you'd have caused irreperable damage.



OTOH, the finish on other vehicles is so nice and thick that you could level it flat as a mirror and never have a problem. IMO this is one of those "it all depends, how lucky do you feel?" situations.