wet sanding

[SBMIANO]

I dropped a friend off at a classic car dealer in Rochester new york last fall so he can get his rolls royce painted. They took a look at my viper (06 vert) and said I should consider wet sanding the finish. He said for $1,500.00 he will do the car and it will look like a mirror. I looked around his shop and saw cars ranging from $100,000 all the way to 6.5 million. (some leader owned it in the 40's and it was a 12 cylinder)

Has anyone though about doing this or has done this?

Any feed back is appreciated. Trying to get the best out of my red!

 

[MikeR]

Viper paint is pretty darn good. Ive had Chevrolets and the orange peel was terrible. The Viper paint is better then our Audi's. I think its perfect, no need to wet sand.

But a good polish and wax will really bring out the finish. It just depends on how well you have kept it up.

 

[wormdoggy]

God no!!
From what I understand, wet sanding removes the clear coat. Don't even go there!!
Just was , polish
Patrick

 

[agentf1]

Only if you have a lot of orange peel. I would not go more aggressive than 3000 grit either.

 

[Newport Viper]

Don't do it! It is impossible to get all the sanding marks out.

Education
Wet-Sanding, Color Sanding, Rock Chip Repair - Car Care Forums: Meguiar's Online

I trust Mike Phillips from Meguiar's, all he does is work on car finishes. Read what he says about Viper paint below.







Here are the issues as "I" see them when contemplating sanding down a factory finish...

First: Removing the sanding marks. Some factory clear coats are as hard as glass. Most/all newer Corvettes and Vipers I've worked had paint like this and while it's easy to sand the paint, it's difficult to remove the sanding marks.

Second: There's a huge difference between working on the flat, easy to buff areas than it is to work up close to body lines, things like grills by the windshield wipers, curved insets, anyplace where theirs a high point and there's a chance the paint may have flowed out and left that area thinner.


I'm fairly confident that I know what you're thinking, that is...

"If I stay with the higher grit finishing papers, like #2500 and #3000 grit, then I should be okay"

And this is true, as long as it's not too difficult to remove all the sanding marks. Often times when you wet sand a finish, it's easy to buff the paint and remove 99% of the sand marks, but when you're completely finished, and you get down you're eyes down to within a few inches of the paint and start to really inspect the result closely with the most discerning eyes, often times you'll be able to see a the sanding mark pattern, or tracers in the finish that didn't remove completely in the compounding step. If you don't remove them in the compounding step, they will be there all the way through till the end because if the compounding step didn't remove them, all the rest of the steps will be less aggressive and will likely not remove them either.

So part of you decision is your own expectations. Do you expect 100% flawlessness? Or is 99% close enough. I would say for people doing it for themselves, 99% is usually close enough. I would say when a customer pays to have it done, they often expect 100% flawless finish yet they don't understand the process and in the case of a hard, factory finish, the difficulty in reaching 100% Their mindset is one of, "I paid this amount of money, I expect perfection". Easier said than done.

The best thing you can do if you are really interested in wet sanding your new car's factory finish is to do a Test Spot. If you can successfully make one small area look good with your choice of products, and process, then you can duplicate this, or cookie-cutter this process over the entire car. If you find it too difficult, too time consuming, or too risky to sand and remove the sanding marks to one small area, then chances are you will not be able to successfully sand and buff out the entire car.

Test Spots, we cannot over emphasis the importance of conduction a proper test of a small area before attempting to tackle the entire car when considering a project like this.








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[Phoenix SRT]

God no!!
From what I understand, wet sanding removes the clear coat. Don't even go there!!
Just was , polish
Patrick

A complete repaint is currently underway on my SRT. I've seen the shop's work on Vipers and it is impressive.

The car isn't finished yet, but at the beginning of the process the painter showed me three levels of finish that could be put on by doing 3 side by side sections of the trunk lid. The difference between the the first two levels is dramatic and the third level is shockingly mirror-like. The first level is comparable to SRT OE. If you never saw the better finishes, you would think that the SRT OE finish is plenty good. And it is. But, the next level finishes are better yet.

For an OE level finish, once the surface prep is complete and the panels are ready to paint, multiple coats of color are applied. Then multiple coats of clear are applied (enough to withstand the sanding that comes next). Next, the clear is color (a/k/a wet) sanded with 1500 grit to remove minute imperfections like dust particles. Then the clear is color sanded again with 2000 grit and then buffed. This process will leave a very, very nice finish. But, if you get the right light and the right angle, you can see subtle orange peel.

The next level goes like this: surface prep, color, clear (same as above). Then wet sanding with successively less aggressive paper: 800, 1000, sometimes 1500 depending on the situation, and finishing with 2000 and buffing. This process will eliminate almost all of the very little orange peel that is present with an OE level finish. When compared side by side, the difference is very noticeable.

The next level will eliminate all traces of orange peel and the finish will be as distortion free as a mirror. I've seen it and it is beyond impressive. It's very pricey, however, which is why I opted for the second level.

For this highest level of finish, it goes as follows: surface prep, color, clear (all as with both levels above), then wet sanding with 600 then 1000 grit. That takes off most of the clear coat, leaving only the clear that fills the orange peel in the color coat. This is what gets rid of the orange peel...it's still there, but it is filled in so that you can't see it. Next comes more clear coat (mulitiple coats), then more wet sanding with 1000, then 2000 grit and a buff. This will leave the paint looking like a mirror, absolutely without distortion. Unless your funds are pretty much unlimited, this level of finish in anything less than a show car seems insane. But, it certainly looks well beyond impressive.

The painter also said that wet sanding the OE finish shouldn't be done without checking with the factory to find out the thickness of the OE clear coat. If it is thick enough to withstand wet sanding, then the process would yield improvements. What grits and how many (eg. 1000 followed by 2000) can be used depends on the thickness of the OE clear. Wet sanding without knowing the thickness of clear coat is a dangerous proposition because of the chance you could go right through the clear, says my painter.

 

[plumcrazy]

roughly the cost on this is............... ?

 

[Phoenix SRT]

Cost on what?