Its been years since i posted in the detailing section, however my passion for paint perfection has not diminished yet. This is only my 3rd time wet sanding a car and even now i still learn and freak out. This isn't a guide on how to wet sand and buff but what my recent experience was like.
The car i have chosen this time is my daily Toyota Matrix. Bought a few years ago new after selling off the family Quattroporte this car has endured over 5 road trips and over 30,000km of highway driving. Needless to say the car started getting stone chips all over front and it was now time for a front respray. Hood, front bumper, and 1 fender was repainted and allowed to completely dry for 2 months. At the same time i managed to snag some GTechniq goodies including serum and restocked on some of my polishes.
My goal for this car was to test out sanding techniques and to see how far i could level the paint before i sand and polish my sports car.
There are no pictures of the washing process but it is very straight forward. I foamed the car with Meguairs Hyper wash, let it dwell, hosed off, and refoamed and wash. Sonax was used for the wheels and APC for all the plastic and rubber.
Once dried i clayed the the areas that were going to be sanded and started out with 1000 grit meguairs sand paper. Progressing to 2000 and 3000. Below is a picture of what it looked like after sanding. The nightmare now started as when i went for my compound and cutting pad, i noticed that nothing i did got the scratches out. Even stepping it up to M84 and wool pad did almost nothing. I freaked out and thought i went too far or perhaps sanded too deep. I left the car for the rest of the night and decided to borrow a paint meter next day to truly see if i had gone too far. Turns out i removed only 10 microns of paint.
With this i began to resend the hood and fender again but spent more time and about 200 passes of the 2000 grit making sure everything was evenly sanded before moving to 3000grit. I can't believe i spent close to 2 hours just on the 2 panels alone. This is what it looked after 3000 grit.
Next step was compounding. A 2.5inch cutting pad with 105 was used and Makita Rotary Polisher.. What i did differently this time was i used a lot more force for the first 2 passes at 2100rpm to quickly break down the compound finishing at 1800rpm. I am very surprised there was hardly any compound dust. This is the complete opposite of M84 where the entire car would be covered in dust after 1 panel. After every 2 sections i would was my pad before compounding again to prevent build up and dry bits marring the paint. To my surprise i hardly saw any marring but after a quick bath to wash out the oil, i knew i had a lot more work to do.
After washing i went straight to a polishing pad and 205. This step was amazing as it really brought out of clarity. The same amount of pressure was used but started at 1500rpm and ended at 1300rpm. After a second was no marring or holograms appeared. This was mostly due to having a smaller pad and having the entire pad cover the area even on the curves.
Lastly to top it off, i went for a finishing pad and Ultrafina. The directions were a bit odd for a jeweling polish. It said to use force for the first few passes but to start at between 1500-1700rpm. That is more than the 205. I ended up using 1500rpm and finishing off at 1500rpm as i was not correcting anymore. The entire time i only used a rotary as that is the only tool i ever used. With the dual action a lot of people find they ant get that extra pop and will always have a bit of marring (haze) left. With that done i did my final wash but this time also sprayed wax and grease remover to rid any oils left from the polishing. No Holograms, No marring, and 99.9% sand scratches removed and full clarity restored. The difference between the unsanded bumper and the hood was huge even on a silver car. Even without wax the polished parts looked like it had just come out a paint booth and was dripping wet. This is what the original panel and orange peel looked like before sanding.
This was the final picture after the serum was applied with a coat of EXO.
With enough knowledge acquired during this detail, i have a bit of confidence applying my skills to sand down my sports car next in a few weeks.
This is what i leaned from other and my self during this detail.
- always use a bit off pressure and don't be afraid to dial up the rotary while compounding.
- work small areas at one time especially while compounding of it will dry out very fast
- always have the pad flat as possible, if not you will induce holograms while polishing even if you don't notice it. hence the smaller pads for complex curves
-trust me, after a wash you will see it
-wash the car after every polishing step to reveal any issues such as marring and holograms
-and make sure to step away and think a bit if you get stuck. I am glad i did and have FUN.
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