![]() And here is another tip: never wet sand the basecoat! The basecoat is very thin and provides all the color on the vehicle. We also do not recommend using wet sand to remove contaminants since clay bar is the best way to do that. This is common in vehicles that sit outside, uncovered for a couple of years, and suffer from deep acid rain etching. There are times when wet sanding simply will not work, for instance defects that are deep enough that they cut through the clear coat and paint, all the way to the metal. That is putting scratches into the paint. Again, according to Mike Phillips, “Sanding is the easy part. Even the most experienced detailing and paint correction specialists are aware they have very little room for mistakes and they would not risk weakening the paint or clear coat on a $100,000 automobile any more than they would a $15,000 vehicle. In the same way you can burn the paint with a rotary buffer if not handled correctly, you can dig too deep with sand grit.Īs many professionals admit, neither compounding nor wet sanding is for the weak at heart. Mastering the “right touch” takes practice and finesse. It doesn’t create the amount of heat that compounding does, yet, it is easy to get too aggressive. There are also cases where wet sanding is more effective than compounding. By going lightly over a few localized spots with wet sandpaper, technicians can use spot sanding to “haze up” the paint enough to make polishing easier One of the less dangerous applications for wet sanding is in leveling touch-ups. You do not want to cut it so close on the first correction that you have no room to go from there. Assuming you or the car owner keeps the car for several years, you will require multiple cleanings, polishing, and in perfect cases, an annual color correction to maintain the paint and keep it free from swirls. ![]() Many detailers feel you have some wiggle room with the UV layers in the clear coat however, one-third of the thickness of a Ziploc sandwich bag isn’t much at all, and one color correction is not the end of it. Keep in mind that compounding or wet sanding does remove clear coat. If CP does not remove the deeper scratches or acid rain etching, you can then spot sand those spots. For instance, you may want to apply a compound to the entire vehicle first ― something like Correcting Polish, which is remarkably abrasive. ![]() In terms of using wet sanding for larger jobs, we recommend exhausting all other options first. By following up the wet sanding with a rubbing compound, the paint will virtually come back to life and give the vehicle the smooth, glassy look car owners love however, unless you are painting an entire car by yourself, you are not likely to use wet sanding in that way. ![]() They use it to even out new paint, to smooth out small runs and sags, to “knock down” orange peel, and remove any debris that fell on the paint while it was wet. That said, body shops use wet sanding on a much larger level. And even then a skilled professional should use a paint gauge to first check the thickness of the paint and clear coat to ensure it will support a wet sanding process. The catch here is that it should only be done by someone with proper training. Now, by this point you may start to ask yourself the question, “If wet sanding is so dangerous, why is it used and why is it offered in every advanced detailing and paint correction seminar?” We respond to that question with a simple answer: Wet sanding is absolutely the most effective means for removing surface paint defects. Then consider the cost of “clear coat failure” ― a catastrophic term for the damage caused by a technician’s miscalculation or mistake in judgment while repairing a defect.Īs Mike Phillips, one of the auto appearance industry’s most knowledgeable experts, says, “…In all the years I’ve been teaching classes… most of the people that sign-up for the advanced class to learn how to wet sand, after they learn how to do it and what’s involved, they find they don’t really want to do it.” ![]()
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