First time detail... wetsanded my car

[Chase09]

Hey guys, I'm new here. I just fell into detail accidentally.

I work at a used car lot "detailing". Only washing the cars and armour-all-ing them to death. The other day I decided to try REAL detailing on my car. I drive a two door chevy cobalt. The royal blue color. I got it from the auto auction and its clear the car has been hit and repaint. The clear coat was the worst orange peel I have ever seen, (keep in mind i work at a used car lot which 90% of the inventory being bad re-paints!). I want to tell you guys step by step what i have done and PLEASE tell me everything thing i did wrong and how to fix it. I really want to quit the shady car lot and put myself through the rest of college detailing, if its possible.

My first time process
(I did the two fenders and the hood so far)

I dont have a good enough camera for my before and after pictures, it was taken with my iphone so orange peel and swirls arent as visible as they should be but ill try...

1) I washed my whole car with standard plain car wash, dried with a chamios.

2) I clayed the hood and fenders with the meguiar clay kit at auto zone.

3) I dried the car with the meguiars micro fiber cloth.

4) I wet sanded with 2000 grit 3m sand paper by hand, no block.

5) once the orange peel was gone, or most of it, I used meguiars ultimate compound with a rotary buffer and a wool pad. Twice

6) After wool I used a yellow foam pad and rotary buffer and the same compound once.

7) I used meguiars cleaner wax and a yellow foam pad and a rotary buffer to remove the holograms. Remove excess with an orbital buffer with a terry bonnett

8) Hand applied meguiars carnauba liquid wax and removed with microfiber.

9) finished with meguiars quik detail mist and microfiber.

PLEASE tell me EVERYTHING i did or didnt do right, missed or left out. I have a passion for this now and want to learn to get much better. I have the rest of my car to practice and improve on. Also, i still have some swirl marks and light scratches on the panels i tried to fix, how can i get rid of these?

Its not letting me add pictures, ill try again soon

[Caress Detailing]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

1. Drying the car you probably could ditch a "chamois" and use something like Meguiar's Water Magnet.

4. If you wetsanded with 2000grit, you probably could have went to 3000 to get it even finer, making it as smooth as you possibly can without taking too much additional clear coat off.

5. Ultimate Compound isn't designed for Rotary usage AFAIK. You should probably invest in some M105 especially when dealing with a Rotary. I have removed sanding marks with just a Burgandy foam pad with M105. I guess it depends on the hardness of the paint though.

6. Ultimate Compound again is pretty high in the aggressive scale, so using it on a yellow polishing pad probably wouldn't do any different. Next time, you should follow up with a lighter polish like M205 or Swirl-X.

7. Cleaner Wax most likely wouldn't have "removed" any of the holograms because it's very light on the aggressive scale, heck I think it's the lightest. And again, you probably shouldn't use this product on a Rotary. At most it should be used with a DA.

And lastly, you should use the brightest light you can get your hands on to inspect after each time you buff. Believe me when I say that regular light sometimes will appear "perfect" but once you got that spot light you can really see what you missed.

So what I would have done is

1. Wetsanded lightly with 2000 then follow to 3000.
2. M105 with burgandy foam or if needed Burgandy wool via Rotary
3. M205 with a yellow polishing pad via Rotary
4. Alcohol wipedown to remove any oils
5. Wax of your choice. Personal suggestions is NXT 2.0, Gold Class for Blacks, or FK1000P for durability.

And a universal tip is that you should always perform on a test spot first to see if you get the results you desire. Good luck my friend!

[Peter.kelly]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

Very good advice from 'Caress'. As a note of caution, make sure that you have some kind of backing for the sandpaper to distribute the pressure evenly when you are sanding.

[RDVT4ME]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

I would advise practicing your wet sanding on a junk yard part. Gutsy move to try your first shot at wetsanding on your own car (I assume this is your first try at wetsanding). Sounds like it turned out OK. I'd hate to see you have to repaint your new car. There might have been lots of clear on the repainted area. You will certainly need to proceed with caution on any factory painted areas.

You've come to the right place to learn. Keep up the good work!

[Chase09]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

thanks guys, that helped a lot. I got a very good result on my newest test spot, a portion of the driver door. I wish i could post pictures but it isnt giving me the option too. Also, my girlfriend just repainted her car black ))). should i do anything differently to a black car? her car needs to be wet sanded aswell but im going to wait 3 months before i do that.

[Eric@Dealergoodies]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

Do you know how much clear coat is on her car? Always check mils before wet sanding if you can. Same steps as before 2000 to 3000 would be best. But if you can check the mils before you start.

[dave_from_here]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

Very good advice from 'Caress'. As a note of caution, make sure that you have some kind of backing for the sandpaper to distribute the pressure evenly when you are sanding.

+ one on that, if you don't use some kind of backing you will leave finger marks and the paint will not be sanded evenlly. And, don't put too much pressure when sanding. Let the sandpaper do the work.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

I want to tell you guys step by step what i have done and PLEASE tell me everything thing i did wrong and how to fix it.

1) I washed my whole car with standard plain car wash, dried with a chamios.
In future, especially when working on a car that has been previously detailed to near perfection, stick with a couple of waffle weave microfiber drying towels like Meguiar's Water Magnet. A chamois has no nap so any stray little bit of debris is going to be dragged over the surface, potentially scratching it. A waffle weave microfiber is highly absorbent and still very soft and gentle on the surface. These are very different in texture from your typical microfiber polishing cloths such as our Supreme Shine towels - those are not designed for water absorption and so aren't really that good at it!
2) I clayed the hood and fenders with the meguiar clay kit at auto zone.
Good. Anything that feels rough to the touch will benefit from claying. That includes the windows, chrome, or hard & shiny plastic surfaces.
3) I dried the car with the meguiars micro fiber cloth.
If you're referring to drying the Quik Detailer used during the claying process, then you used the right towel for this step.
4) I wet sanded with 2000 grit 3m sand paper by hand, no block.
This is a serious no-no. Even with 2000 grit, failure to use a block or pad will result in an uneven surface caused by pressure points at your fingers. Even with your fingers held very closely together, there are effective "voids" between them where little to no pressure is being applied to the sandpaper and so you aren't cutting into the paint. Especially if your goal is the removal of orange peel, you need a very flat backer to the sand paper or you risk simply flowing with the surface rather than truly leveling it. There are times when you want to follow the surface contours and not remove the orange peel, but if your intent is to actually remove the orange peel, your method is NOT the method of choice. In fact, your method of choice should be avoided altogether.
5) once the orange peel was gone, or most of it, I used meguiars ultimate compound with a rotary buffer and a wool pad. Twice
As has been noted, UC is not a rotary designed product. That doesn't mean it can never be used with a rotary, but there are better choices for this task. M105 Ultra Cut Compound would, most likely, have cut through your 2000 grit marks in a single pass. When doing an entire vehicle, this is a huge time saver.

6) After wool I used a yellow foam pad and rotary buffer and the same compound once.While this makes sense on the face of it, given the products you had on hand, a better choice overall, especially when chasing the best possible finish, would have been to follow your wool pad/M105 with a foam pad and M205. The resulting finish would be near swirl free, or completely so depending on the paint and your skill level, and the clarity of the finish would be very high.

7) I used meguiars cleaner wax and a yellow foam pad and a rotary buffer to remove the holograms. Remove excess with an orbital buffer with a terry bonnett Had you used wool/M105 followed by foam/M205 you would have found no need for this step at all. Even so, Cleaner Wax is a rather odd choice for hologram removal but the idea of stepping down to a less aggressive product shows that your thought process is correct. Without knowing what else you had on hand, perhaps Cleaner Wax was the least aggressive product you had that offered any sort of abrasive cleaning power. Still, there are far better choices for this step. The terry bonnet on the orbital has the potential of instilling a whole new set of swirls, just the nature of the material. Of course, a lot depends on how aggressively you used the terry bonnet, how soft the paint is, etc. Here a better choice would be a proper D/A buffer like our G110v2 or even a Porter Cable 7424 in conjunction with a foam pad and M205. Once worked in with the tool, removal by hand is very, very easy and preferable to removal with an orbital and terry bonnet.

8) Hand applied meguiars carnauba liquid wax and removed with microfiber.
Perfectly fine, but if you do invest in a G110v2 (or pick up a PC 7424 if you have serious budget issues as most college students do) then you'll love applying your wax with this tool. You'll be able to lay down a very thin and uniform coat, which is what you want, and subsequent wipe off by hand/microfiber is a piece of cake.
9) finished with meguiars quik detail mist and microfiber.
Always a good idea to make sure you've gotten the last of the wax, etc.

PLEASE tell me EVERYTHING i did or didnt do right, missed or left out. I have a passion for this now and want to learn to get much better. I have the rest of my car to practice and improve on. Also, i still have some swirl marks and light scratches on the panels i tried to fix, how can i get rid of these?

In addition to the comments above, you might want to read through our 5 Step Paint Care Cycle for some really good background info.

As for the wetsanding in the first place, as has been mentioned that was a very gutsy (or potentially very foolish) thing to do!!! Without knowing for sure how much clear you were removing it's very easy to remove too much. And you don't have to go completely through the clear to cause problems - removing half of it will generally lead to premature clear coat failure in just a couple of years. In fact, with a factory paint job where the clear coat is usually on the order of just 2 mils thick (2/1000 of an inch) it is the recommendation of the manufacturer that you not remove more than 0.5 mil, or just 1/4 of the clear coat. With a repaint you don't know for sure how much clear you have, and it could be much softer than a factory paint job too.

Don't let the fact that you used 2000 grit lull you into thinking you're safe as far as clear coat removal goes. If you have a lot of orange peel, as you've described here, and you remove it all, it doesn't matter what you removed it with - you removed it. And that means you potentially took off a lot of paint - especially if the peel is now gone and the paint is flat. Add to that the fact that you failed to use a block or pad and you have a pretty aggressive process going on!! D/A sanding would have resulted in a less aggressive cutting process and yielded a far more uniform sanding scratch. This more uniform, more predictable, scratch would then have been much easier to remove. Ultimately, this ease of scratch removal translates into still less paint being removed, which is obviously a good thing.

As RDVT4ME suggests, you might want to practice a bit more on a junkyard panel. You can get into trouble pretty quickly when wet sanding, and doing so on a vehicle you care about isn't fun.

Also, i still have some swirl marks and light scratches on the panels i tried to fix, how can i get rid of these?

If all you have on hand is Ultimate Compound and a yellow foam pad for use on a rotary, go with that for now. Running the rotary no higher than 1500rpm and keeping the pad very flat against the paint is the way to go. In fact, try starting out a little slower than that even, and confine your work area to no more than 2' x 2'. Clean your pad often with a nylon brush to avoid build up or gumming of product.

[ColonelCash]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

In addition to the comments above, you might want to read through our 5 Step Paint Care Cycle for some really good background info.

As for the wetsanding in the first place, as has been mentioned that was a very gutsy (or potentially very foolish) thing to do!!! Without knowing for sure how much clear you were removing it's very easy to remove too much. And you don't have to go completely through the clear to cause problems - removing half of it will generally lead to premature clear coat failure in just a couple of years. In fact, with a factory paint job where the clear coat is usually on the order of just 2 mils thick (2/1000 of an inch) it is the recommendation of the manufacturer that you not remove more than 0.5 mil, or just 1/4 of the clear coat. With a repaint you don't know for sure how much clear you have, and it could be much softer than a factory paint job too.

Don't let the fact that you used 2000 grit lull you into thinking you're safe as far as clear coat removal goes. If you have a lot of orange peel, as you've described here, and you remove it all, it doesn't matter what you removed it with - you removed it. And that means you potentially took off a lot of paint - especially if the peel is now gone and the paint is flat. Add to that the fact that you failed to use a block or pad and you have a pretty aggressive process going on!! D/A sanding would have resulted in a less aggressive cutting process and yielded a far more uniform sanding scratch. This more uniform, more predictable, scratch would then have been much easier to remove. Ultimately, this ease of scratch removal translates into still less paint being removed, which is obviously a good thing.

As RDVT4ME suggests, you might want to practice a bit more on a junkyard panel. You can get into trouble pretty quickly when wet sanding, and doing so on a vehicle you care about isn't fun.


If all you have on hand is Ultimate Compound and a yellow foam pad for use on a rotary, go with that for now. Running the rotary no higher than 1500rpm and keeping the pad very flat against the paint is the way to go. In fact, try starting out a little slower than that even, and confine your work area to no more than 2' x 2'. Clean your pad often with a nylon brush to avoid build up or gumming of product.

It's nice to find that some people actually ENJOY their jobs. You can tell Mike does, anyone who did not love their job would have taken a far less detailed approach when responding.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

It's nice to find that some people actually ENJOY their jobs. You can tell Mike does, anyone who did not love their job would have taken a far less detailed approach when responding.

Thank you, sir. And yes, you are spot on about loving the job!!

[Chase09]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

thanks guys i cant wait to go at it again this weekend, what can i use to tell how think the clear coat is? Also what are the difference in pad colors, like which is the most abrasive and which is the most gentle, etc.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

To determine paint thickness you will need a paint thickness gauge. The really good ones run around $400 or more, but Harbor Freight has a decent unit for under $100.

But you've got a bit of a challenge here: A paint thickness gauge used on a factory original paint job will give you readings in the 5 to 6 mil range, and you can safely assume that the top 2 mils of that is clear coat. That is pretty much the industry standard for clear coat thickness, but a basic gauge (even at the $400 to $500 price point) is only going to give you the total film build - primer, color coat and clear coat combined. But you aren't working on factory paint here; you said it has clearly been repainted. So you might see a film build reading of 8 mils. Or even as much as 14 mils. Depends on how much sanding they did to remove the old paint, or if they just roughed it up and shot new paint over the top of it. Of course, you could have a replacement body panel, so that one might read 5 mils and the adjacent panel could read 12 mils since it's been painted over. All sorts of different scenarios can happen here. And through it all, and here's the really important part, since the car has been repainted you can no longer assume a clear coat thickness of 2 mils. It may be much less than that. If the paint job was done on the cheap just to make the car presentable for resale, there could be very little clear on it. You have no way of knowing unless you talk to the painter or you invest in a film thickness gauge that can differentiate between the primer, base and clear layers. But those cost thousands of dollars.

Fun, huh?

As for the pads, in our Soft Buff 2.0 foam pad range they go from least aggressive to most aggressive as follows:

W9207 black finishing pad
W8207 yellow polishing pad
W7207 burgundy cutting pad

From there you step up to our wool pads (rotary use only), again from least to most aggressive:

WWLC7 yellow wool light cutting pad
WWHC7 burgundy wool heavy cutting pad
W4000 Cut 'N' Shine wool pad
W5000 double sided wool pad

[Chase09]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

Should i stick with my rotary buffer, or should i invest in something else, OR will i need several types. I have a no name rotary buffer, with speeds 1-8. I also have an orbital buffer

[Michael Stoops]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

Any idea what those speed settings are in rpm? Is the orbital one of those 10" things that looks like a big ol' steering wheel? If so, you'd do well to dump it and pick up a quality D/A polisher like our G110v2 or the Porter Cable 7424XP.

[Chase09]

Re: First time detail... wetsanded my car

My orbitial is one of those steering wheel looking things. As far as the rotary goes... I have no idea about the speeds. I usually spread out the product on speed one, then move up to speed 3-4. I should probably invest in a new DA and a new rotary. I really want to make some money doing this. And I want to do it the right way.