What is Wet-Sanding?

[Zuke]

Can someone point me to the correct thread explaining this or shed a little light? Why do you sand and @ what point do you have to...

[john m.]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

Wet-sanding really has the same effect as polishing. You are taking down the amount of clear until the defects are removed and the survace is level again.

On when to do it it all depends. You would wet sand to get rid of orange peel, that is if you dont have factory clear. And you also wet sand when it would be hazardous to keep a buffer in that spot for long. For example some scratches will just be removed faster with wetsanding as it gets down quicker.

I feel like im not making any sense anymore so ill go ahead and stop here im sure mike will chime in and have the perfect information your looking for

[Zuke]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

No that makes more sense. Im still newish to the whole detailing and want to sponge in as much of this as i can. I wish i could intern @ the Meg's shop lol!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

The majority of all wet-sanding is done in body shops a few days after a car comes out of the paint booth. The painter knows ahead of time if the car is going to be sanded or not and if it is to be sanded he takes that into consideration when deciding on how much paint to spray onto the car.

During the first few days the fresh paint will tend to still be soft enough to buff easy, that's a real blessing when trying to remove all your sanding marks.

Lots of people get caught up in the talk about removing the orange peel out of their factory paint jobs and what they don't usually understand is that the factory paint was baked on using high temperatures and is typically on the thin side, this makes it difficult and risky to sand and buff. It's always easy to sand paint, (that's putting sanding marks or scratches into the paint), the tricky part is getting the sanding marks out of the paint.

[ClearlyCoated]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

Try these wetsanding threads

[TH0001]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

As mentioned wet sanding is sanding the surface while using a lubricant (usually, as the name implies, water) to reduce surface scuffing.

Machine polishes (cleaners) are very similar to sand paper, only the abrasives are in a suspension vs. being fixed. Sanding offers a couple of advantages.

1) Sanding can be very precise. It is possible to remove 'just' enough material to level out a scratch then stop.

2) Sanding can flatten paint, removing orange peel, paint runs, etc.

This 1979 Ferrari 512BBi Boxer still had the original Italian sprayed Glasurit paint. However 30 years of abuse had left it seeing better days...





There was a number of severe water etchings and very deep scratches. The owner of the car, who is a client of mine from Chicago, told me specifically make it perfect or he will have it resprayed. After carefully measuring the paint and writing down the recordings, we began by removing precise amounts of paint with sand paper. By frequently checking our work (both visually and by measuring) we where able to maintain a maximum amount of paint thickness.

Even from the factory this original paint Ferrari had a number of pretty scary and severe defects. As the paper 'planes' over the high spots (dulling them) the low spots remain shiny. Constant measuring of the paint's thickness allowed us to remove 'just' the correct amount of paint to smooth this 30 year old beauty.



Aggressive scratches and water spots where first sanded with high grit paper....



And then subsequent sanding passes where made in opposite directions (in a cross hatch pattern) until the paint surface was level and defect free, using Meguiar's 2000-2500-3000 grit sandpaper.







Here is the roof after final sanding with 3000 grit. It has a semi-gloss finish in that there is some reflection visible.



A wool pad and compound where used (for several passes) to remove or 'pull-out' the sanding scratches and cut the paint to restore the gloss.



The original single stage Glasurit paint was bleeding all over the pads





Here is the process on the door from start to finish.







All wrapped up!!!

[Zuke]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

Sweet, so let me dumb it down for myself a little, basically sanding is the somewhat like a polish execpt the abrasives are basically in a bottle rather than on paper? Does that question makes sense?

And great job on the car BTW, i bet owners cringe when they see you working on it but love you when your done

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

Sweet, so let me dumb it down for myself a little,

basically sanding is the somewhat like a polish except the abrasives are basically in a bottle rather than on paper? Does that question makes sense?

Kind of the same idea.

Note that Meguiar's makes non-abrasive polishes as well as abrasive polishes so it's always a good idea to do a little research on any product you're interested in using and don't just go by the name on the label. The word polish is used to describe everything from a compound to a synthetic paint sealant.

Where's the Word Police when you need them?

[TH0001]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

Sweet, so let me dumb it down for myself a little, basically sanding is the somewhat like a polish execpt the abrasives are basically in a bottle rather than on paper? Does that question makes sense?

And great job on the car BTW, i bet owners cringe when they see you working on it but love you when your done

In some ways that is very correct. The end result is 'material removal', it is just an alternative means to an end.

Like polishing with a rotary, sanding's effectiveness is going to largely depend on the skill level of the person doing it. A beginner to paint correction could very likely end up with a large mess on their hands.

In my experience to completely remove all sanding marks and scratches requires very aggressive polishing (compound, wool pad, rotary polisher), as even the flat surface left behind has greater changes in depth then typical swirl marks. As Mike mentioned, sanding is the easy part. It is the removal of the sanding damage that can be very difficult, time consuming, and frustrating.

Thank you for the compliments!

I just finished up a 80+ hour detail on this 1930 Bently, westanding almost every square inch (minus borders around sharp edges)... I will post a thread on it, including a little how to, as time allows (it is going to be a while)....

[Zuke]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

You better hurry, you can't be throwing teasers like the around. TH i tried to PM you today, im not sure if you have it disabled but i wanted to ask you about your work, congrats on the award you one, you posted a pic with you Mike and someothers, one you named Pres Detail. Im confused because i thought he was Billy yet name tag says otherwise. I don't wanna sound like a groupie but i love your guy's work...Im tempted to run from this desk job and go work with cars..I am begging my detailing journey and really really want to make this my life. I have never enjoyed doing anything else so much, and if i simply pay my bills with it i don't think i could ask for anything else. I could ask you a million more questions right now, but what i need most is more experince. Would looking around for a PT job @ a detail gig be worth a shot around here? Tampa seems to have more shops that Seattle.

[TH0001]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

You better hurry, you can't be throwing teasers like the around. TH i tried to PM you today, im not sure if you have it disabled but i wanted to ask you about your work, congrats on the award you one, you posted a pic with you Mike and someothers, one you named Pres Detail. Im confused because i thought he was Billy yet name tag says otherwise. I don't wanna sound like a groupie but i love your guy's work...Im tempted to run from this desk job and go work with cars..I am begging my detailing journey and really really want to make this my life. I have never enjoyed doing anything else so much, and if i simply pay my bills with it i don't think i could ask for anything else. I could ask you a million more questions right now, but what i need most is more experince. Would looking around for a PT job @ a detail gig be worth a shot around here? Tampa seems to have more shops that Seattle.

I'm not sure why I'm not getting PM's, they should be on? Billy (pres) was in the middle, Chad was on the outside.

After graduating from Central Florida I worked a desk job at a hospital and surfed the internet, learning about detailing. One day I came home and asked my wife if I could go back into detailing full time, she said sure. The next day I placed an order from ADS, the next week I quit my regular job, and the rest has been history. In Seattle there is an amazing detailer named Aaron from 3 Layers of Gloss (I think). I don't know if he has a helper or is willing to take one on, but it might be looking into. He is a great guy and extremely talented.

[Zuke]

Re: What is Wet-Sanding?

I'm not sure why I'm not getting PM's, they should be on? Billy (pres) was in the middle, Chad was on the outside.

After graduating from Central Florida I worked a desk job at a hospital and surfed the internet, learning about detailing. One day I came home and asked my wife if I could go back into detailing full time, she said sure. The next day I placed an order from ADS, the next week I quit my regular job, and the rest has been history. In Seattle there is an amazing detailer named Aaron from 3 Layers of Gloss (I think). I don't know if he has a helper or is willing to take one on, but it might be looking into. He is a great guy and extremely talented.

Hey thanks, I ended up emailing him and he gave me a # for a guy @ a local college who teached autobody repair and detailing. This was awesome info i can't thank you enough!