one direction only ???

[I Shine]

About 15 years ago I took some paint and body classes at my local community college. I was not doing this for a career, just for fun and to use up some G.I. bill money.

If my memory serves me correctly we were taught to wet sand in a criss cross pattern (left/right up/down). I have noticed that in instructional videos all of the reputable professionals sand in only one direction (back and forth).

Why is one direction better? What kind of result and/or damage would wet sanding in two directions cause?

Thanks

[Murr1525]

Re: one direction only ???

Like most things with detailing, if you use low quality products that leave marks, it looks nice for all your marks to line up.

The goal of course, is to use high quality materials so it doesnt matter what you do. You can think of a high quality orbital sander.... it is going to move in every direction.

That is true for sanding, cleaning, waxing, etc.

[Mike Pennington]

Re: one direction only ???

If you are working by hand and prepping to apply paint, and using multiple grades of paper, you probably will "cross hatch".

If you are finishing sanding after the paint is applied and still multiple step sanding you may still "cross hatch".

However, on your final sanding step by hand, it is recommended to sand in one direction (front to back)



Mike