Will wet-sanding helps reducing the deep scratches and less noticeable?

[jjrakwichian]

Hi everyone, I would like everyone to help me gain more knowledge about get rid of deep scratches/ deep swirl marks

Today, I happened to encountered one weird case ( For me )

One of my client have the -89 Benz 300 black and at the rear right window pillar at the quarter panel. Before I started to do the paint correction I saw this pillar has lots of bad and deep swirl marks as well as deep scratches. After I inspected the pain condition I knew that I should be able to correct that with Rupes 21/yellow pad/M100 Compound, but guess what.....it did not work....... Now this is the catch tho, Whole entire car, I was be able to take out about 90-95% that has the similar scratches and swirl marks that shown on the pillars and I wish that I could upload some photos for everyone to take a look but somehow this website can only upload photos from URL but not from my computer or my phone.

Is there any suggestions/recommendations/advice that can help me to get this job done?

I would like to thank you very in advance to all those who are willing to advice me about this

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Will wet-sanding helps reducing the deep scratches and less noticeable?

You specifically mentioned the right side of the car - how about the left side in this same area? Could you correct the paint there? If so, then that tells us that the shape of the panel was not the limiting factor. How much worse on the scratches on this right side panel than what you encountered on the rest of the car? Can you feel any of these scratches with your fingernail? If so, then they are very deep and it's not usually a good idea to just keep hammering away at them in an attempt to remove them fully. This type of scratch often is best to leave alone after you've reduced it's appearance to some degree, or else you might have to move into some light feather sanding and compounding to remove them. But that's a process left to an experienced user - when done correctly it can actually be very non invasive, but when done wrong it can take you right through the clear coat in no time.

If you can not feel these scratches with your fingernail, you might need to move on to a more aggressive compounding process. Have you thought about using microfiber pads to fix this area?

[jjrakwichian]

Re: Will wet-sanding helps reducing the deep scratches and less noticeable?

Thank you for replying me back.

Yes, I have thought about using the Microfiber cutting pad but I an kind afraid of using it because I have never used the Microfiber cutting pad before........as for scratches tho, I could catch that with finger nail but very lightly tho and I do not know that considers as the deep scratches or not ( to me it is, I guessed.... )

The pillar at the other side of the vehicle also has a real bad swirl marks as well, but I was be able to get rid of those swirl marks around 90-95% but not the side that I have mentioned earlier.

Also, I do have another problem at the trunk lid as well, but I do not how to explain that, is there any way that I can upload the photos that I took to this thread for you to see? when I try to upload, it only show that I have to have the URL in order to upload the photos. Or is there any way that I can send the photos to you directly to see what happened to the trunk's lid?

Last, if I need to sand it, should I do dry sanding with 1500 grit and up or wetting sanding with 1500 and up?

Thank you very again in advance for you advice!!

[The Guz]

Re: Will wet-sanding helps reducing the deep scratches and less noticeable?

If you want to upload photos you can create a photobucket account or upload some photos into your gallery. You may have to crop and compress your photos if you choose to use the gallery.

[jjrakwichian]

Re: Will wet-sanding helps reducing the deep scratches and less noticeable?

Thank You

[Eldorado2k]

Hey what's up dude :waves
I remember you from TNOG
As far as photos goes, yea make a photobucket account like The Guz suggested. If you're on iphone the way it works for me is to use photobucket through Safari and choose 'medium' size when it asks you to upload to photobucket. From there just paste them into your posts on here. Hope that helps a bit.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Will wet-sanding helps reducing the deep scratches and less noticeable?

If you can feel the scratches with your fingernail then that is an indication that they are indeed quite deep. Remember, factory clear coat is only about 1.5 to 2.0 mils thick (that's a max of 2/1000 of an inch) so if you can feel a scratch in something that thin, it is quite deep relatively speaking. If you're afraid of using the DAMF cutting disc then you really don't want to jump in with wetsanding, especially if you've never done it before. Remember, once you put sanding marks in the paint you have to remove them, and that will likely take the power of the DAMF cutting disc anyway - or a rotary, but that's a whole different story.

What is the overall condition of this car - really? Let's face it, it's a 25 year old car and if this is original paint, and the car has a lot of miles on it, odds are it will never be "perfect" again. If it's been repainted and it truly is in shockingly good condition, then pursuing a more aggressive approach to fully correct these last defects might make sense.