Why are they wet sanding a TLX? The clear coat is not that thick. I would not wet sand a mass produced car. Someone without any experience could easily go too far.

Overspray was from painting the new bumper. They must not have masked the area well. Overspray can sometimes be removed with a clay bar.

 

The car had just arrived on their lot that day and it hadn't been prepped or detailed yet. So when we did the walk around with the sales manager, he pointed out the things they would be fixing.

The paint had light swirl marks in some areas and I asked if they would be able to remove the swirls. His was response was "yeah they'll probably wet sand it and shine it up for you"

(Im a girl just so you know) So, he very well could have been just using fast talk to sell me the car. Im aware of that. All I know is when I got the car back, the paint looked really good.

When I did my first wash, that's when I noticed (what I know now to be) over spray. Should I have the dealership remove it?

 

Swirl marks are from improper washing techniques with improper wash items like sponges. People wash their cars with circular motions and combined with the harsh sponges puts tiny scratches in the paint. the Sun catches these marks and due to the circular pattern, they look like swirls. It becomes really obvious on black cars. Wet sanding is over kill to remove swirl marks. It can remove too much of the clear coat. And if you get swirl marks back on the car what do you do? Probably can't wet sand it again. You run the risk of sanding through the clear and into the paint layer. A more appropriate way to address this is with a light cutting polish and an appropriate pad with a buffer or random orbit polisher. It will remove the swirl marks in a safer way and remove less clear coat. I doubt the dealer really wet sanded the car. It would be more work than to just polish it, because after the wet sanding, guess what? You have a lot of polishing to do. So best to just polish and save a step. Custom paint jobs with think clear coats can be wet sanded to get the ultimate glass look since the main purpose of wet sanding is to remove orange peel (highs and lows in the clear coat) and make a 'flat' surface, not to remove very shallow swirl marks.

The overspray is from a repair where atomized paint from a paint gun floated in the air and landed on a part of the car that was not masked. If it bothers you, you can probably remove it yourself with a clay bar. But after using the clay bar you will have removed whatever wax or sealant the dealer applied and you'll need to reapply something to that area. It is not bad, if you are anal about your cars appearance it may bother you and should be fixable. If the overspray is thick enough, this is one place were wet sanding might be needed.

 

Just bring it back to the dealer and tell them that there is over spray on the car from when they painted it and you need them to make it right.

They will remove the over spray by doing what is necessary. Whether it's wet sanding and polishing or hand polishing only. Doesn't matter, long as it's no charge to you.

Wet sanding is not necessary bad. It depends on the grit of the sand paper being use. It can be 900 to 1200 grit if it just to remove minor over spray. You don't need to worry about it. Just tell them to fix their minor mistake.