It sucks!!!! Thats all you can really say. Had to sand the shine off the truck before it could be repainted.. grrr this took 5 hours with 4 people. Ugh. Its a friend's truck, he owes me for this one.. I wanted to just get an electric sander and go at it, but my friend insisted I sit there and wet sand and wet sand and wet sand and.. you get the point.. why is that?

 

Wet sanding is done for two things.
1. prep for new paint, provides for an ultra smooth surface.
2. prep new paint for compounding, this is done to remove runs and orange peel.

Wet sanding is done because the water will wash away the paint that usually clogs the sandpaper. it washes away stuff that can scratch the surface. Usually you take paint down to about 400 to 600 for prep for a new paint job and you can dry sand up to about 320~400 but it usually clogs the paper so fast that it's worthless to try.

I feel your pain. I just painted my F250 long bed and I've already wetsanded the hood, fenders and doors, now I have to do the bed and cab (inside and out) It starts to hurt your hand and I can think of many other things that are funner!

Keep him in mind when you need some major help!

 

Yeah, we wet sanded the gloss of his paint, and also on a friend's '73 Charger, they had primered it and sprayed a light coat of paint over it, real light.. misted it.. and when we sanded the color off it was ready to be painted. The Charger wasn't that bad, it was a big car but theres alot more surface area to a truck.. I knicked my hands real bad on some things, and it was overall a pain in the butt :P I'm glad someone feels my pain, lol.

 

>I wanted to just get an electric
>sander and go at it, but my friend insisted I sit there and
>wet sand and wet sand and wet sand and.. you get the point..
>why is that?

Wet sanding experts: could we use a pneumatic dual-action sander instead of our hands to do the wet sanding? Or is there a problem with the speed of the medium? We'd still have to use old-fashioned elbow grease to get into the nooks and crannies, but the DA might be helpful over the larger surfaces. Anyone wet sanded this way?

 

i tried wetsanding with my little power sander on my bedrails, and i do NOT recommend it. it left pieces of the paper in the paint, which i have yet to get off.

 

Actually there are at least two systems out there that I've seen for this. One was on dream car garage and the other I think was from 3M called finishing film.

The real problem with these 'time savers' is that they are real 'money wasters' If you have too much money in your pocket then go for it, but it's hard to beat the old wetsand for cost.

As for using a machine for wet sanding, I wouldn't do it. Today, I just did about 2/3 of one side of my longbed and the actual sanding time was about 2 hours, the rest was compounding, checking, wiping, etc...

Each sanding session was about 20 min and then a switch to a new paper or grit.

The point is that on new paint, you MUST use GREAT care in how much sanding you do. The goal is to start about 1000~1200 grit and get it nearly flat, then make if real flat with the 1500+ grits and maybe stop there or go to 2000+ grit.

The trick is to remove as LITTLE material as you can and still get it nearly flat, the compounding will take of a tad more and that should be the true / near true flat point. It really hurts to see a burn thru on a freash paint job.

 

After you wet sand, do you or can you put primer over it?

Could you use a homemade sand block with the sand paper to save your hands?

And do you run water over the part your sanding or do you use a bucket of water and dip in and out?

I was thinking about doing this to my truck.
Should I just use the sand block with out the water, and just go at it? I went at it before and it came out ok, but I actually used a Ryobi electric sander, I didn't really like using that to much. I have been wondering if it would be worth to hand sand the whole truck? I want to get it repainted since the other paint job didn't last but for 3 years. (Damn Macco Paint!)

Nathan

79 F-150 Ranger, Lariat Supercab

 

>After you wet sand, do you or can you put primer over it?

You could, but I'd check if the primer is compatable first, you might have to go with a sealer or epoxy primer. Talk to the guys at the paint store but I think you can.

>Could you use a homemade sand block with the sand paper to
>save your hands?
Don't do it. I bought the 3M sponge and the 3M rubber block about $5 each. A slight flaw in the sanding equipment will ruin everything.

>
>And do you run water over the part your sanding or do you
>use a bucket of water and dip in and out?
I dip it in and have a seperate sponge for when it gets too dry. I also completely rince down an area before it drys to remove the residue.


>I was thinking about doing this to my truck.
>Should I just use the sand block with out the water, and
>just go at it? I went at it before and it came out ok, but
>I actually used a Ryobi electric sander, I didn't really
>like using that to much. I have been wondering if it would
>be worth to hand sand the whole truck? I want to get it
>repainted since the other paint job didn't last but for 3
>years. (Damn Macco Paint!)

You can use any sander for the < 300 grit but you really have to watch the paper close. I used 3M gold paper on a long board air sander for most of my fine work just before wet sanding. It worked great because it didn't clog very fast. I tried the Ryobi sander, but it would clog up in less that 1 min. and the standard paper just doesn't hold up.

Clogs can ruin everything, they can cause deep scraches in the surface and then you've just made more work for yourself.

You can also get a 17" long board that's used by hand if you don't have a compressor. the advantage here is that you can use that great 3M gold paper.

Another option is the scotch brite pads, they come in 400, 500 and 1000 grits and I used them on several area. Just got done using the 400 when preping the bed for Heruliner, they work great and don't clog at all. The downside is that they don't take out the high spots like a block does. But they are great for just preping an area for a repaint.

 

Karljay -

Whats the rule on wetsanding and clearcoat? I'm wanting to put several coats on so I guess my question is -

1. Is it better to put the coats on while the clear is still tacky
or
2. To do it in stages and wetsand between each coat.

I want to get as deep a look and shine as possible since we're going with a solid, normally drab color (light army green).

Quality is the main thing I care about, not the time it takes to get it done.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Carlene

 

>Karljay -
>
>Whats the rule on wetsanding and clearcoat? I'm wanting to
>put several coats on so I guess my question is -
>
>1. Is it better to put the coats on while the clear is
>still tacky
> or
>2. To do it in stages and wetsand between each coat.
>
>I want to get as deep a look and shine as possible since
>we're going with a solid, normally drab color (light army
>green).
>
>Quality is the main thing I care about, not the time it
>takes to get it done.
>
>Thanks in advance for your help.
>
>Carlene

Let each coat dry to a finger drag state, which is tacky but not wet. If you get a flaw that requires extra sanding like a run or sag, let it cure a bit longer then add extra over the top part of the run or sag. Wet sanding should be done after all the coats have fully cured, usually several days of even weeks depending on weather.

If you really care about quality add a few extra coats just for wet sanding, then when you wet sand expect to remove about 2 coats and still have 3 or 4 coats under that.

I waited up to an hour between coats, but it was a lot cooler then. If you see an area that's looking dry as you paint then move a bit slower and it you can't seem to get a good clear 'wet' look as your painting, then thin out the paint some more.

I was having trouble with mine not flowing out, so I add about twice as much thinner to it and it REALLY started to flow out at the end and saved the paint job.

Another tip, paint the edges first then you'll end up with some extra paint at the edges. This helps when when sanding so that you don't burn thru the paint.

Also, it helps to understand why you have to wait between coats. The solvent in the paint has to evaporate out between each coat, otherwise you get solvent pop because the solvent will be trapped between coats and also the paint has to harden up a bit or the next coat will cause a sag or run. How fast it evaporates depends on air flow and weather.

No need to sand between coats unless you really want to or have a major problem. Wet sanding can fix nearly any problem and also can make a $200 paint job look like a $5000 paint job.

 

Ok I own a body shop and a lot of points in this conversation are good, but the mechanical sanding is better, you must use the right tools, Walmart DA is not what I mean by a 'right tool' you need a good air powered DA (dual action sander) and preferably the 3M pad that almost doubles the power of your sand paper it is like a sponge that goes inbetween the DA and sand paper, as for sand paper get 320 for prepping for paint and 1500 for clear coat cutt down from orange peels.


Jt

 

Karljay - Just wanted to thank you once again. If you only knew how much your prior posts have helped me in my current project.

It'll be a few weeks still before I can try the wet sanding as I am on vacation now and that was what I was wanting/planning on doing. Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating. It's been raining about 4 weeks straight which means "not good for painting". I was able to at least get the rest of the parts I wanted to sandblast done.

I'll let you know about the current post once I get a chance to do the painting/wet sanding.

Thanks again for all of your knowledge.

Carlene

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 02-Jul-02 AT 02:35&nbsp;AM (EST)]Allways glad to help, after all if we don't share, nobody learns.

Mother nature wasn't on my side when I was painting mine either, glad to know it wasn't just me
KarlJay.