cowcool

How smooth can wet sanding get a rough clear? My last coat of clear went down pretty rough. I used 2k grit paper, wet sanded and it removed some of the roughness. Would working back from 1200 to 3000 and buffing possible fix this?

Stocker

Enough sanding can get ANY finish smooth.

Whatnot

if you like smooth metal....lol



What OP says is usually a good idea, start at 1.5k and work up to 3k then start with an agressive polish and go to a medium and fine polish, you can get it mirror smooth, smooth as glass......and it will last about 2 years probably and kill your paint pre-maturly. So you need to put on another coat...and sand that down ect. Having a show car mirror reflection isn't for the faint of heart. I haven't reasearched it in a while to know exact mils/microns ect. But lets say 1 coat of clear is 25 units, and you need 100 units to protect from the UV and nature ect. So you could put on 4 regular coats and call it a day. But you are 99% guaranteed to have some form of orange peel or roughness no matter how good of materials and process. So with wet sanding, you bascialy put on 25 units, wet sand away 5-7 units, but then at teh end of 4 coats you are left with 75 units, so your paint will fade early, it isn't as protective as it could be. And that is IF you knew what you were doing and had a PTG. If you are just eyeballing it or using your touch, and don't have 20+ years expereince, chances are you will have much closer to 40 units left, or be down to the paint or metal lol. So wet sanding required MUCH more time, and a few more coats if you want a proper mirror finish that is protective too. And all of this effort is really for not unless it is a show car that sees the light of day once a month if that. Because dust will accumulate, and if any moisture forms, you will have to wash your car, and IF you wash it properly you will still get 1% of it swirled, which on a normal car isn't noticalbe, but EVERYTHING shows on mirror finish and it will look terrible and you will have to bust out fine polish and touch it up often. So if you are going for a mirror shine, I would consider the time and effort involved. If you just want to smoth out a rough spot, you would probably even be able to use some medium or fine cut polish, though it depends on how bad it is.

Stocker

That's one of the differences between $200 at Maaco and $8k at a good paint shop, BTW.