How to wetsand?

[crapyboy750]

How to wetsand?

[Fujbird]

wetsanding isnt as hard as a lot of people make it sound, i am asuming your are talking about fixing that spot on your bumper. bascially the main advantage to wetsanding opposed to drysanding is that with the finer grit papers it constantly flushed the dust out so the paper doesnt clog. anyway start with 800-1000 grit on that spot. just throw the paper in a bucket of water and let it soak for a few minutes so it softens up a little. and get a sanding block, otherwise it will be a lot harder to get the smooth finish. anyway just start sanding, but dont use a lot of pressure, just a little at a time. you dont want to go all the way through the clear. and have a squirt bottle with you and just keep squirting away the whole time your sanding to keep the paper clean. once you have gotten an even finish with the lower grit just go up to a finer one, and repeat. and make sure you go vertically and horizontally, with each grit. just to make sure you get all the spots. the most important part is to not let it get dry. and the finer grit you end with the easier it will be to buff it, and since i am assuming you are doing that by hand, i would say try to get to at least 2000, and 2500 if you can. even though its a small spot its still a lot of work. you can use some 3M rubbing compound after you are done with sanding, which will make it shine, but still a little hazy, then use a polish or hand glaze after that, and you should be good to go.

just to show you here is what i went through on my car a few weeks ago....to get rid of the orange peel and haze on the neglected paint on my car
Before


During (almost looks like metal)


The finished product


And here is one where just the fender was done, just to show the difference it made compared to the door


but this whole car took me and a friend about 15 hours to do. and we did not buff it by hand. so i wouldnt recommend doing a whole car unless you have some time to kill.

[crapyboy750]

wow man thanks for the right up.

[TransAm11973]

how do you think wet sanding would work on the 6-10 small bubbles that i have on my roof panel?

[Fujbird]

how do you think wet sanding would work on the 6-10 small bubbles that i have on my roof panel?

what do you mean by bubbles? is it in a fresh paint job, like dirt in it, or old paint thats just giving up. i mean its kinda hard to say without knowing

[PontiacFan]

how do you think wet sanding would work on the 6-10 small bubbles that i have on my roof panel?

It will not cure the problem.
The glue used has created those bubbles & the problem will not go away unless you replace the panel per the TSB.

I added the TSB below. Take it to your GM dealer body shop & see if they'll cover it. If not, find another dealer before committing to paying for it yourself.

[LETHALxLS1]

wetsanding isnt as hard as a lot of people make it sound, i am asuming your are talking about fixing that spot on your bumper. bascially the main advantage to wetsanding opposed to drysanding is that with the finer grit papers it constantly flushed the dust out so the paper doesnt clog. anyway start with 800-1000 grit on that spot. just throw the paper in a bucket of water and let it soak for a few minutes so it softens up a little. and get a sanding block, otherwise it will be a lot harder to get the smooth finish. anyway just start sanding, but dont use a lot of pressure, just a little at a time. you dont want to go all the way through the clear. and have a squirt bottle with you and just keep squirting away the whole time your sanding to keep the paper clean. once you have gotten an even finish with the lower grit just go up to a finer one, and repeat. and make sure you go vertically and horizontally, with each grit. just to make sure you get all the spots. the most important part is to not let it get dry. and the finer grit you end with the easier it will be to buff it, and since i am assuming you are doing that by hand, i would say try to get to at least 2000, and 2500 if you can. even though its a small spot its still a lot of work. you can use some 3M rubbing compound after you are done with sanding, which will make it shine, but still a little hazy, then use a polish or hand glaze after that, and you should be good to go.

just to show you here is what i went through on my car a few weeks ago....to get rid of the orange peel and haze on the neglected paint on my car
Before


During (almost looks like metal)


The finished product


And here is one where just the fender was done, just to show the difference it made compared to the door


but this whole car took me and a friend about 15 hours to do. and we did not buff it by hand. so i wouldnt recommend doing a whole car unless you have some time to kill.

Can you tell me the products you use to bring the finish back when the sanding is done? Do you use a DA or rotary polisher? do you use a wool pad or foam? Thanks

[Fujbird]

well to start off i guess i will saw this was all done with a D/A..(which did slow down the process a little, but it can be done).. but first step after the sanding was 3M rubbing compound to get rid of the heavier scratches. Then we used the 3M perfect-it 3000. that got it looking pretty damn good. The rest was what is normally done with a regular buff, and all the product we used were from Adams Polishes(<<<<google it). Swirl remover, Machine polish, revive polish, then the buttery wax. as far as pads they were all foam pads, but we used 4 different ones, all of which also came from adams. it may not have been the most time efficient way of going about this, but it worked, and worked extremely well.

[LETHALxLS1]

I agree ! great job! ^ I guess he took your links out hahahha.

[qwk93ta]

Your car looks great after the wet sand and polish!

[drummer52910]

Did you wetand the whole car by hand or did use the Daul action for that too?

[Fujbird]

Did you wetand the whole car by hand or did use the Daul action for that too?

wet sanding was all done by hand.

[Firebird Phoenix]

wet sanding was all done by hand.

Pretty impressive job on the wet sand and polish.

A tip to make it easier instead of constantly squirting water is to let a hose trickle water out slowly (example if you are doing the hood put it at the top of the hood and it will slowly run down the hood).

[Fujbird]

Pretty impressive job on the wet sand and polish.

A tip to make it easier instead of constantly squirting water is to let a hose trickle water out slowly (example if you are doing the hood put it at the top of the hood and it will slowly run down the hood).

i wish we could've done that...we thought about it.......but we didnt have a hose long enough to reach that far. and we only had a couple 8 oz spray bottles too, so we had to make a lot of trips for refills. There were a lot of things that would have made it easier that i wish we had because using a DA for all of the polishing was not fun....