Good afternoon to all. I posted this on another forum, but never recieved an answer, so Im trying my luck here.

September 22nd, a woman failed to yield & I trashed her Infinity. Naturally, my front end needed replacing as well (hood, bumper, headerpanel, passenger side fender, etc.) After an exhaustive battle with her Ins. company, (still ongoing), they paid me the property damage side of my claim against them, and I went & got all the parts from Pull-A-Part. The Explorer I harvested these from had seen way better days, but all the parts were undamaged with no dents, dings, etc. I've since sanded all the metal parts down to the bare metal, and primed, sanded, primed again, sanded, and finally used Primer sealer over the lot.

Question 1: Do I now sand down the primer sealer, to get it as smooth as
possible?

Question 2: If so, do I DRY sand or WET sand? Im very aware that a fine grit paper must be used. (600)

Question 3: Since Im not going to be doing the final paint job myself, should I just leave it till I take it in to be painted?

As always, I truly appreciate any and all comments, tips & suggestions.
Hopefully I'll get a response to these questions here.

Cheers & Merry Christmas to all!

 

If you get the panel too smooth, you'll have trouble getting the color coat to stick well. But if you are going with a metallic color, you also need to get the panel smooth enough that the metallics won't settle in the sand scratches. Typically you don't want to go any smoother than 400 grit between the primer and the color coat. You'll probably want to wet sand so that the paper doesn't fill up as quickly and to get a more uniform surface. There is often a maximum cure time between various coats, exceed that time and you need to rescuff and spray prior to subsequent coats. Does the primer surfacer/sealer you used have such a maximum recoat time?

-Rod

 

Thanks for the reply Rod. I looked but it doesnt say when the maximum recoat time is. I assume after the first coat has dried. At any rate, the panels are all sealed. The surfaces are pretty "coarse" (unsanded), and I hadn't planned to sand them down untill I got an answer to my questions. A lot of what I did has to do with protecting the panels from the elements & other things, until I can get them to the paint shop. I've got 600 grit paper, but you say I should switch to 400? (The final color will be metallic.) Im not sure if it has clear coat or not. Im still trying to find and/or decipher the color code on the door frame

Chris.

 

This link may help you determine if your original paint is a base coat/clear coat system.

Yep, I would not use the 600, but rather 400 grit and wet sand. This should give the sealer enough of a surface for the base coat to bite in to without having grooves so deep that the metallics will settle in them.

Be prepared though that you may need to scuff and re-shoot prior to painting though, so you'll want to figure that out before you spend a bunch of time wet sanding.

-Rod

 

If this is an insurance deal, why isn't the insurance company paying a body shop to do the work?