I posted this under another post but no answer.
I have a question about clear. My car was painted back around 1981. I can't remember what paint it is but I know it's not laquer. I think I went with the factory type paints. Anyway, I never had it wet sanded. It has the normal orange peel in it. Although it's older paint it's always been garage kept and still looks good. Now that I know more about how I can fix this I'd like too. When I start sanding with 1500 how do I know when I've sanded enough w/out burning threw? Same thing for the 2000 grit. Thanks

To be safe scuff it and buff it. When you sand use the 2000 grit and a rubber squeege. Buffing alone will remove orange peel and wet sanding removes more. BE WARNED sanding through gets real expensive fast. Stay away from edges and corners with sanding and buffing. Use lots of water and a little soap to help lube it. Hope this helps I know its' tough work but results look :cool:
Dave

If I remember correctly, you can see the orange peel when you are sanding, the high spots get sanded & the low spots stay shiny. Gives you a Idea how far to go. I color sanded my black paint in my interior, glad I did, looks like glass!

When you say scuff and buff you mean sand with 2000 and then of course buff but with what rub compound? My car was buffed about 10 yrs. ago but the guy must not have used a coarse enough compound. I'm guessing the squeege is used to see where you sanded, right? Where do I get the right rubber squeege and what kind of soap? Thanks guys

Start with 2000 paper. Wet sand using a rubber squeegee (sand paper wrapped around it) and lots of water.
Frequently wipe the surface off with the bare rubber squeegee to remove the water. You'll be able to see the orange peel, if it's still there. You want to sand just enough to remove the high spots of the orange peel and have a flat, smooth surface.
After that, you'll need a 3M Perfect-It polish and the right pad. Find an auto body supply house and they will reccommend the correct products. There's polishes for light and dark colors. certain polishes work better with certain foam pads as well.
I personnally like the MacGuire's new uni-grit sand papers. They seem to leave less big scratches than 3M paper.

Jimmy,

When you say rubber squeegee are you talking about the arch shaped type sand blocks that have slits for sandpaper to fit in? One good thing most of my car is white all but the rally stripes they're black anything different when doing black? I have the double sided sanding blocks they're soft rubber on one side and hard on the other, size is like 3" x 5" Here's pics of the O/peel. Thanks

http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_a/214000-214999/214503_85_full.jpg

http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_a/214000-214999/214503_84_full.jpg

The rubber squeegees I'm talking about are the small flat, about 2" x 4" square.
You can still use the soft/hard blocks for sanding, just have the smaller sgueegees to wipe the water away. Your paint can be show quality slick & smooth. Just a 'cut & buff' is all it needs. Watch your work in progress and don't sand through! Wipe the excess water away often and look at the area you're sanding from different light angles if you have to, to see the surface of the paint. Outdoors in the sunlight provides good lighting as long as it's not too bright. That white is hard to see sometimes!

If you go ahead with buffing this car, and I have my doubts on whether it is a good idea, I would do a very small area as a test. Sometimes a urethane clear can get SO HARD that it is darn near impossible to buff the scratches out from the sand paper. Sanding a buffing a years old fully cured clear takes much more skill than a day old one in my opinion.

Getting back if you should be doing it. Why, after ten years you think this must be done?

Jim,

I'll do that. You're right white is tuff to see.

Martin,

It's been 22 years. The reason is because I had to do some touch up where it got a scratch in it pretty deep. So when I was fixing it I got it looking pretty good and then I sanded the area with 600 wet then 1000 then 1500 and although it still has small scratches in it, it's like looking into a mirror and I'd like the whole car to look like that.

What pisses me off is I paid alot of money back in 81 to get it painted by a quality painter. I was just a kid at the time so when I got it back from him I thought it looked pretty good. Then I heard the name O/peel for the first time from someone looking at my car. In my ignorance I never new that something could be done with it short of repainting.

Did you have to point out that I am missing 10 years? Now, where did they go.. :confused:

Oh yeah! MY EXWIFE HAS THEM graemlins/angry.gif


If you have found that it buffs up ok, then just take one panel at a time and go for it, smile.gif

Martin,
I'll do that.. BTW: Just for the record you missed 12 years. :D

What do you guys feel is the window of opportunity for the easiest buffing? I have never tried to do it after 1 day as mentioned earlier, but have always waited about a week or 2. Explain to me the logic behind this if you can, because I have a 69 convertible to paint during the next few weeks before winter sets in.