Can I sand the car using a DA?

[Leonardo T Almeida]

Can I use my Meguiars DA to sand the car? If yes, should I do it dry or wet? and finally, what would be the right speed to be set (1,2,3,45 or 6)? Thank you for your help. Leo

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

A couple of things first, Leo:

1. Welcome to MOL!
2. We moved your thread from Hot Topics to the Wet Sanding & Color Sanding section as it's a better fit here.

OK, with that out of the way, yes, you can actually use an electric DA to do some damp sanding on your car. Our buffer, and most of the popular ones available for paint polishing, are not rated for wet use and since water and electricity don't mix well at all, we really advise against the practice. But it can be done if you exercise some common sense and pay close attention to what you're doing.

The damp sanding we referred to involves our Unigrit Sanding & Finishing Discs because they don't need to be soaked in water, nor do they require large volumes of water normally associated with wet sanding. All you really need is a spray bottle of plain water and just a couple sprays of water onto the work area to be sanded, and maybe one spray onto the sanding disc. Cleaning the sanding discs regularly by lightly running them against a clean microfiber towel will clean out built up debris and minimize the potential for pigtails and other problems. It is also critically important to use a foam interface pad between the backing plate and abrasive disc. Do not skip this!

Tool speed should be in the 3 to 4 range, and just light pressure used. You should then be able to achieve a very uniform sanding mark and if you refine down to 3000 grit (highly recommended) then buffing out that sanding marks will be much easier.

[Leonardo T Almeida]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

Hey Mich...First of all thank you for your welcome message and no problem at all about moving my topic to the most appropriated forum.
About your explanation, that

[Leonardo T Almeida]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

[SIZE=1]Hey Mich...First of all thank you for your welcome message and no problem at all about moving my topic to the most appropriated forum.
About your explanation, that

[Leonardo T Almeida]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

All right Michael, great explanation. Everything is very clear. I will try and and will share soon my experience.

Thank you so much,

Leo

[David Fermani]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

Heck yeah you can. Done it tons of times. Here's from a thread I created on another forum a while back about this:


I’ve been wanting to try out some DA sanding with my new Porter Cable XP and test the infamous Kevin Brown Method to remove the marring. I’ve been faithfully using the KBM for a few months and love the way it carefully levels paint and creates substantial amounts of gloss all in one. I’ve heard some people warn of electrocution using water with an electric DA, some say that the PC’s throw is too long. I thought I’d give it try on a complete detail scheduled on this 04 Saab 9-3 and who's paint was in very poor shape. The owner was seriously considering repainting it and gave me the go ahead to do whatever I wanted to the paint.

Befores:






I really wanted to use 3M 1500 Trizact, but realized I only had regular 1500 grit. I had did have a bunch of 3000 Trizact so I felt confident that any heavy sanding marks from the non-Trizact 1500 would easily be refined by following with 3000.

[David Fermani]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

edit

Can't seem to cut & paste from another forum into MOL so here's the link instead:

http://www.autopia.org/forum/guide-d...wn-method.html


*mods feel to edit if this is against the rules*

[tomsteve]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

if this is factory clear and you havent done it before, be careful and check your progress quite often. it is very easy to sand through factory clear.it is a lot easier to start with higher grits and work down that to fix and area where ya broke though the clear.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Can I sand the car using a DA?

edit

Can't seem to cut & paste from another forum into MOL so here's the link instead:

http://www.autopia.org/forum/guide-d...wn-method.html


*mods feel to edit if this is against the rules*

No problem, David.


To anyone else reading this, understand that David has been doing high end, advanced process detailing for a long time. Wet sanding, even damp sanding with 3000 grit, can get you into trouble if you don't understand the process and/or you just rush into things. When done correctly, removing severe defects with 3000 grit and then compounding out those sanding marks can actually be less invasive to the paint than just aggressively rotary compounding the defects. But both skills are quite advanced, so if you've never done either before, don't try to teach yourself on your own nice car. Or worse, on a client's car!