SSN_FT1(SS/DV)

So I was tooling around on www.autopia.org last night, great site bye the way, and I saw some before and after pictures of some wet sanding some guys and gals have done.

Well, driving this past winter in CT my front end is covered with chips....car looks great other than the front end. I thought that I would just have to live with it until I saw this faq on Autopia.

What do you guys think of this process and has anyone done it before on their TSX or otherwise? It seems like if you screw it up...you're going to be in a world of hurt.

Thanks again!

Dan Martin

I'd have it professionally done and detailed. Wet sanding can go wrong in a hurry.

lokman

Wet sanding is not for the faint of heart - you will have to polish the car afterwards to get rid of all the sanding marks. Did you see the following thread on Autopia where the guy wet sanded a black Mercedes? The pics of the car during the sanding phase hurt. Fortunately he has enough confidence and skill that he'll be able to get the sanding marks out.

http://www.autopia.org/forums/showth...threadid=42096

If you do want to try it, I suggest finding a beater or some panel to try out your technique first.

SSN_FT1(SS/DV)

I know you're from CA, but would you have any idea how much something like that would cost? Anyone else feel free to pipe in. Thanks!

ResidualFreedom

I've wet sanded a bunch of cars lately, the key to the wetsanding is, it has to be removed by machine. If you don't have a machine, it's not worth the headaches. When I say machine I mean a good one ( Porter Cable 7424 is incredible) not the $40 simonize orbital buffer you get at CanadianTire( for us Canadians ) or AutoZone. You'll get really scared once you see what the wetsanding does to the car, but after you remove the sanding marks and see how the scratch (that was there, hence the wetsanding) has been dramatically reduced or disappeared completly to leave a scratch-free swirl-free shine. After a couple of times you build up much more confidence and get a good understanding on how much you need to sand and how hard.

I have some good pics from me wetsanding Tatewaki's Black TL before it was entered into darknights (Toronto Car Show). I have them on my computer at the shop, I will add them to this thread when I get there later on today.

MrChad

I have a Porter Cable DA orbital (7424...# changes depending on the attachments) with all the trimmings and I find it hard to believe you can polish a car after a wet sand with this? It just not strong enough to polish out wet sandings kind of swirls. I use it with other machine polishes for light swirls.

I use it to polish my car after a wet clay? But removing and polishing the clear coat after a wet sand needs alot more speed then a DA can provide you need a true single action buffer for this.

As for using a wet sand to fix chipped paint, it only works if you have paint to fill the chips before you sand and for the amount of work required, you may as well just pay to have the bumper repainted it's much faster with better results. Usually wet sanding is an option for chipped paint and valueable classic cars only since repaints can lower the value.

Plus you can only really wet sand a car once, then your OE paint is too thin to sand again.
Wet sanding is also used to remove the orange peel from a repaint so the bumper will have the shining look when done anyhow.

ResidualFreedom

Now these are wetsanding marks!!! As you can see they are on the hood beside the winshield washer sprayer. We actually wetsanded the entire bumper, parts on the roof where "mom" wiped away bird sh#t with a paper towel and almost countless other places.




The car was going into the show , as mentioned in the proir post, so we gave it a complete "make-over". Here is a before pic and a couple of after pics of Tatewaki's TL.
The only machine used on this car was the Porter Cable 7424, and it did the job perfectly.......so perfectly this car, a '99 TL, won first place at Darknights for it's catagory. Not too bad for a car that has had exposure to CAnada's winters and saltly roads since '99, never parked inside.....








Make you own conclusion, but I assure you with the right technique and products the PorterCable is enought to take any sanding marks out.


here is another pic of my buddy's honda accord after a quick run-through with the steps, it had to be parked on the streets downtown so "don't make it perfect, it'll get stolen. A '96 accord looking like new will get plucked in a few hours in my neibourhood". And it would too....not a good area of down town...