Single Stage Paint Wet Sanding Finishing

[Zaboss]

Hello I am new at this. I am in the process of making my recent paint job a lot more glossy finish. I do have orange peel in places and have successfully removed using 1000 1500 2000 Grit wet sanding (in that order). I have seen forums that suggest to do rubbing compound between the 1000 grit wet sand and the 2000 grit wet sand. So the order should be 1000 grit or 1200 grit to remove orange peel and dust etc... Then rubbing compound then 2000 grit sanding. I have that using final glazing compound after all wet sanding is done, I get a cloudy finish. So I back and and again. As this is a recent paint job (3 days), I am wondering if it is too early to put on glazing compound. In all instances I have been using rubbing, swirl remover and glazing compound without direct sun. Any ideas why I am getting the cloudy finish in the final glaze stage. I rubbed and rubbed and it would not come out.

Thanks Wes

[Markus Kleis]

Re: Single Stage Paint Wet Sanding Finishing

Welcome to MOL Zaboss.

Just an FYI I moved this into the Detailing 101 subforum as it is likely the best place to get an answer.

As for your question, it would help if we knew a little bit more about what you are working on. Ie, type of surface, car, paint color, type of paint job (custom, cheap, expensive), and how much paint you have to work with as well.

Also, what compounds and brand sandpaper have you been using? What type of buffer? Pads?

Give us a little bit more info about that, as well as your experience detailing and we can give you the best products and methods to get the job done!

Mark

[Jchou]

Re: Single Stage Paint Wet Sanding Finishing

I'm new to the sandpapering processes. Is the brand /quality of the wet sandpaper really important? like 3M 2000 grit vs. Walmart 2000 grit ?

[the other pc]

Re: Single Stage Paint Wet Sanding Finishing

Wes,

The point to using a compound is to remove the sanding scratch. So using a compound before the #2000 sanding is pointless.

The point of the whole process is to remove defects and leave a pristine finish. Unfortunately, no one product/application step can remove all defects and leave a pristine finish. So you have to step through progressive stages, each removing some level of defects (but unavoidably instilling a lower level of its own) until they’re all gone.

A common series of steps would be to start with course sanding to remove orange peel and such. Then move to finer sanding to remove the course sanding scratch, compounding to remove the fine sanding scratch and polishing to remove swirls left by the compounding.

Just how many steps each of sanding, compounding and polishing depends on many factors. The paint, the products, the tools and your technique all play into it.

Here’s a great series of vids that demonstrate one possible sequence of steps: 5 Video segments on wet-sanding and using a rotary buffer

Also note, whenever I hear the word “glaze” come up when talking about a sand/cut/buff process it always raises a red flag. Glazes are the most misunderstood and misused products in the bodyshop industry. They’re commonly used to (temporarily) cover up shoddy workmanship. They’re properly used as “icing on the cake” to highlight a flawlessly prepared finish, not to remove defects left from an earlier step.


J,

Yes, the sandpaper makes a big difference.

Abrasives designed specially for finish sanding like Meguiar’s/Nikken Unigrit, Mirka or 3M Trizact (not 3M’s general purpose sheets!) give far better results than ordinary abrasives.


PC.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Single Stage Paint Wet Sanding Finishing

I have seen forums that suggest to do rubbing compound between the 1000 grit wet sand and the 2000 grit wet sand.

Might want to avoid these other forums as this advise is wrong.

You do all your sanding steps in order and then remove them using a compound with a wool pad on a rotary buffer.

Any ideas why I am getting the cloudy finish in the final glaze stage. I rubbed and rubbed and it would not come out.

Before we get into your other questions on why the paint is looking hazy and cloudy...

How are you applying the compound? By hand or machine? If by machine what kind of machine and pad?

Whose compound are you using?