porshhhh951

How much would a good wet sanding job cost? and where could I get it done?

VOoDOoGTX

john i know a few really good retailers. You would be surprised what they can do without wet sanding first. Its a art. be prepared to spend a boatload on someone that knows what there doing.

JohnKoaWood

I would refer you back to an earlier post

I'm assuming noone here is going to contest what Burma said, and Wet sanding actually takes less time and effort than machine compounding, MOST body shops will be more than happy to sand/polish your car for you, for a price,

MOST "detailers" will not wet sand, as it takes less time and is more time efficient than buffing, they get paid by the hour, and rarely will pre-quote, My last shop pre-quoted, and we NEVER went over a quote... My wife did all the Quoting, and ALWAYS high sided every quote, never had an unhappy customer...

Dude, on white, try your hand with a clay bar and orbital FIRST, don't apply too much pressure to the buffer as an orbital WILL burn through, my PO did it to my car in more than enough spots, but I believe that is the worst thing he did... work it in small sections, and you will be AMAZED at what you, yes you, can achieve... OR come down, pall around with Patrick down in Hampton for a day, stop by my house on the way home and I can teach you how to swing it with items you probably already have.... Detail shops make money for 2 reasons, either the customer is too lazy or too afraid to do it themselves...

Funny story, mid 90s, product called "touch free car finish" or something like that was being direct marketed (infomercials), now if you watched closely, you could see why this crap didn't last, but a **** load of people bought it... and put it on their cars... We removed it from so many cars, we had a standard quote for the process... 10 hours @ $150 and hour... we had cars each day for over 6 months in to have this crap removed... basically it was a 2 part epoxy, that you smeared all over your car... went on clear, dried semi-clear.... with streaks,
BBB listed us the removal company for northern VA, and referred ALL complaints to us for removal, the morons selling the crap had to re-pay their "customers" for the removal... God I hated that crap, it was the consistency of 90s cosmolene, but didn't even blink at Amonia (used to remove cosmolene, the coating applied to cars for rail transport before the OEMS started using vinyl sheets) and most users applied the crap to their cars 10 times as thick as Cosmolene ever went on... had to begin with 00 compound, and buff through untill you got to clearcoat or paint... then goto medium polish, fine polish, wax... we heard each and every day "Thats what I wanted my car to look like in the first place, but didn't want to pay for a detail, I thought 29.95 was a good deal, untill I saw how it looked"
We laughed all the way to the bank...

VOoDOoGTX

i was talking to john not you, you deffinetly needed it. But liek you and i just said with a white a car clay and some good pollish and wax is the way too go and can do wonders.

porshhhh951

I'm not scared to pay. I do claybar and wax and the paint is hand rubbed and cut. The paintjob on the car is extremely nice looking when properly cared for. I'm looking for someone to get rid of swirl marks and just go the extra nine that I can't do in a 3hour period myself.

I don't see what the big deal is. I used to pay to have it detailed to this degree once a year and a orbital twice a year. I think it was $120.00 bucks. I'd claybar the car and wax it atlest once every three months. Now that im up here where their is salt on the road. I claybar the car and wax it every two-three weeks or so.

JohnKoaWood

No big deal, if all you need taken out is swirls, no need for the sanding, Sanding is for HEAVY paint damage or oxidation from YEARS of neglect... swirls, polish and an orbital will take care of those, Hell I have the orbital my PO threw in with the car, I'll send it up if you want, no charge, already have your address... just say the word... some good product (3M, Meg) medium polish, hand wax, keep it washed 1-2 times a week when in the salt, wax it every other wash, shouldn't give you problems, or need clayed every 3 months, polish it every 6 months to year...

Let me know and the orbital is in the mail...

INURGRL951

3M fenessitt II is the sh*t I have used it for years down in the paint shop I used to work at !

Burma Shave

When I said that buffing removes more material than sanding, I was specifically refering to buffing after sanding. Btw,we use 3m Perfect It # 6085 compound. I stopped using Finesse It more than 5 years ago. The 6085 compound is by far the best compound 3m has put out. On a white car I wouldn't expend too much effort or money as you will never see the result you would on a darker color. I would go with clay bar and wax- you could spend twice as much and the car will look about the same. As for swirls, they are dealt with in the polishing/glazing step, not by sanding and buffing.

blown 944

Thanks for the heads up ... ...... old dog ....... new...........

944obscene

I wouldn't worry about sanding a car that doesn't have any real paint damage. My car, I may have to, because the repspray on my hood (PO thought I couldn't tell) is such that the orange peel is almost distracting. I plan on spending a day on the front end here soon. Just need to get another buffer and the proper pads. Black paint scares me!

BGA9512

I have some clear coat blistering on my passenger side door and have been following this thread with great interest. Would you recommend wet sanding to clean it up? I guess one has to do the whole panel, if not the entire car?

blown 944

If it has lifted from the base your are pretty much SOL for sand and buff. If it is a top layer imperfection then maybe you can fix it

Hard to tell w/o seeing it

Burma Shave

Re-paint, sorry.

951North

Here's a suggestion, Go to a wreaker yard, buy a hood off something a practice on it...

I just tested on a car I didn't give a $ hit about...

944obscene

Here's something I think WE ALL could use for help.

http://www.autopia.org/forum/index.php

I love to read here. Look at some of the stuff these guys do! And there's an online store if you need anything. They also do product reviews etc.