Wet Sanding!

[62scfairlane]

After a car is painted, what is the next step? Do you wet sand it? What grit and exactly how do you wet sand a car? How do I know if I am finished or if it is done right? :confused:

[mmooney84]

If you are a good painter after you are done painting your done. If you clearcoat the vehicle and it has too much orange peel for you likin then you can sand it with depends on how bad but between 800-2000 grit paper. Then you will need to buff with a good buffer and use 3m or meguiars polishing compounds. If you give more specifics Im sure someone can tell you exactly what to do.

[Roch_Greg]

62scfairlane:

the next step after painting would be to "flatten" the finish. This is assuming one didn't introduce any other "defects" to the finish during applicaiton.

Wetsanding is simply using sandpaper that is, well wet, to remove what is commonly called Orange Peel.

Because Wet sandpaper "cuts" deeper and faster than dry you'll want to use a high/less coarse grit (usually 1200 and up) some people even finish off with 3000 or 4000 grit. You sand some then remove the water and sludge and evaluate then area you just sanded. You'll know when you done as the area will have a consistent dull apperance with no specks of shine. After which you wash down the panel to remove the "sludge", dry, then "polish" out the panel to bring back the shine.

Len has a couple of good write-up's posted here and here I would reccommend reading through those then coming back with any questions