So, as the title states, I've decided to get rid of the orange peel on my car. The vertical panels are TERRIBLE, and I can't live with it any more. Here's the area right behind the rear wheel. This is the worst part I've found so far: Anyways, for those with experience wet-sanding, what has been your process? I have 1500 and 2000 3M Imperial Wet/Dry sandpaper, and a meguiar's sanding block. It's the small black foam one, not the larger black rubber one. Think I can buff out the 1500? OR do I need to follow with the 2000? The Machines: Makita 9227 PC 7424 The polishes: Menz PG 1Z Intensive paste 1Z High Gloss Polish Menz PO106FF Menz FF. The pads: Makita Wool pad (Larger one from Lowe's, never used. Because I know nothing about it) LC PFW 6.5" LC CCS 6.5" pads (all) LC CCS 5.5" pads (all) 3M Black Waffle pads (5.25" i believe, from detailerguy.com) I would prefer to not use PG, but will if I must. I only have afternoons to work on this (I work my day job til 5), and have to be done by Saturday morning. It's not an impossible feat, but I'll be busy that's for sure So, guys, got any pointers? I've already done the hood with 2000, and that took a long time, so I bumped up to 1500 for the door. Wondering if I need to follow with 2000? Or will something in my arsenal be sufficient for removing 1500 grit? Couple more pics: And after buffing a section of the 2000 sanded area with 1Z proline intesive paste/PFW:
Lookin good so far. How long have you been soaking the sandpaper for? How many times did you hit the hood with the PI PFW combo?
Sandpaper went into the bucket Saturday night. I started wetsanding at maybe 2 pm on Sunday. Lots of lube. I had a couple drops of CWG in with the distilled water in my spray bottle to give a little more lube too. The hood got 2 passes.
:shead: Not to rain on your parade or anything.. but did you measure paint before? I learned my lesson and have since used and then bought a PTG. Also.. do you plan on polishing after this? I highly doubt you'll be able to polish except maybe one-steps from now on :shrug: Not worth it, unless it's a show car IMO :shrug:
I understand that. The car is a 2000 Lincoln LS, and already has 135K on it. It's not going to last years longer, that's for sure. If it were a lower mileage car that would be around for 10 more years, I'd think about preserving as much paint as possible. Also, I'm only taking down most of the orange peel. It's still not completely flat. I'm not really removing a lot. The peel on this particular car was hideous. Terrible reflections. I'm just knocking down some of it.
Yeah, not worried about it. The thing actually needs a paint job. There are a few bad runs in the COLOR coat, so I can't do anything about that. The front bumper has cracks in the paint from an accident before I bought the car. The rear bumper has cracked paint from I don't know what. The area of roof that meets the windshield is covered in water spots, and the 1500 won't even take them out. It's not really a paint job I want to keep anyways. But I want to get some razor sharp reflections out of it!