Wet Sanding

bnova said:
Where may I find info, how to, or any tips about wet sanding?
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This topic has been covered many times, that search button up there ^ type wetsanding and all your questions can be answered
 
I have a 96 Ford Contour that is my wife's commuter car, it has over 165K miles on it. The paint is looking its age and someone mention try wet sanding to bring back some lustre and to remove spots and scratches. I figure this car would be a good starting point / project.

From what I've found on the search, start with 2500, soak the paper before starting, keep the surface and paper wet, go in one direction. Some people feel you'll need a rotary buffer afterwards, I only have a random orbital from Porter Cable. I have access to a large compressor, do I need to invest in a air rotary buffer?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!
 
I think that unless your car is in real bad shape wet sanding is pretty agressive......I would wash the car then clay to clean the finish....use a good body scrub paint cleaner next...........Then with a cutting pad start with light cut compound or PB SSR 2.5 to cut the clear........I would guess that this should clean up the finish pretty well........I would followup with polishing,then straight to wax you could also do a sealant before the wax if you wanted.......Again I can't imagine that wet sanding is the answer its not been on the cars that I have done.
 
BeemerBoy, thank you for the response. This is all new to me, what is a "good body scrub painter cleaner". I do understand the rest, (I think.).
 
Look at the Megs line up or maybe PAC will have one, althought Dwayne is off for a bit..........This is a chmecial cleaner designed to really celan the finish after you have clayed or instead of clay in some cases......You might be able to use your PC for this as well......The rest is pretty straight forward after that.........what you are trying to do is clean and prep the finish, cut with the SSR 2.5 then polish to bring back the luster and then protect.
 
:yeah I aso agree that wetsanding is aggresive. First start out with the simplethings and then move forward toward the aggressive routes. Just my 0.02 cents. Good Luck
 
i use wetsanding only on really bad scratches or bird crap marks in the clear coat. follow beemerboy's advice. wetsanding may leave marks that will frustrate you if they won't fully come out. good luck.
 
I had to wetsand to feather in some touchup paint on my hood. It somehow went terribly wrong and I now have some fairly deep (not quite fingernail-catching) scratches. I've been using this patch of hell (I named it) as a test bed for learning to use my rotary. So far I have some deep scratches surrounded by nice glossy paint. Thank god my car is white, if it was black I would die. Back to the topic at hand, I would avoid wetsanding like the plague if you can. Try using a chemical cleaner like Pro Polish to clear everything up and see what condition your paint is really in, then you can decide if you need to take such drastice measures.
 
I just wetsanded a 1995 Mecury Tracer(Ultra Voliet color). I went thru several grits. I started from 1600 to 4200 grit and it came out pretty good. I'll try snap some pics for you guys, if weather permits here (pouring here) :(
 
I have to agree with the others. I'd try a cutting pad with the pc and SSR 2.5 or even SSR 3. Work that in really good, go down to SSR 2 or SSR 1 and and compare that 2X2 section to the untreated area. If you are happy, move on. If not, then you can try wetsanding. If you go slow and really work in a good paint cleaner and compound, you may be surprised with what it can do.

Mike :bigups
 
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