My car was painted with Basecoat/clearcoat about 8 years ago and was never color sanded. The guy who painted the car told me that color sanding would make the finish cloudy. The paint still looks great, but has a lot of swirl marks from washing and waxing it over the years and I would like to make it look better, so I have a few questions: What is color sanding and what does it do? Can color sanding be done on an older finish like mine and will it make the finish cloudy? Should an amateur tackle this project? If it helps, the paint is dark blue Glasurit base coat/clear coat.

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65 Danube Blue MALIBU 4 door wagon, Disc brakes, F41 suspension,
GM Performance Parts 350/330hp crate engine with serpentine belt. Electric cooling fans, 700R4trans, Sanderson headers, Flowmaster exhaust, factory air with Vintage Air conversion, tilt wheel. http://chevelles.com/showroom/JimN/Maliburearview0006.jpg
Engine pic: http://chevelles.com/showroom/JimN/engine2.JPG

[This message has been edited by JimN (edited 02-05-2003).]

Color sanding won't make your finish cloudy.
You can color sand an old finish with no problem. It's safer then sanding a brand new paint job because the paint has dried and cured well on an old paint job. You wash the car well and then take fine sand paper and sand the imperfections off of the clear coat.
Then your car is all dull looking and you think that you have really screwed it up. Then you need a buffer with rubbing compound and polish it back to better then new. Wash it again and use a "glaze compound", which is finer then the rubbing compound, to remove the swirl marks left from the rubbing compound. This is a very brief and simplfied overview of color sanding. It takes alot
of skill to buff a car out without burning through the paint. You should pratice on something else before you tackle it on your Chevelle or bring it to a body shop and pay to have it done. You wouldn't believe the differance it will make. It will look better then ever. Do a search on color sanding and you may find more detailed info.
Good luck
Roger

Dont forget that you have to keep the piece that you are sanding WET. Use a hose or the like. Try doing a search. Thats how I learned. If done richt, it can REALLY make paint shine!