Wet Sanding New Paint Job

[68Mustang]

Help! I have a new paint job with some orange peal in the final clear. What are the proper steps of wet sanding (what grit)? then buffing to get a show car shine? (what pads)?
Also what compounds will I need to get a really nice deep shine. I have 3 coats of clear on it.

[RedSoxRacer]

This is not something that someone with little or no experience wetsanding should try to tackle. Chances are good you will end up doing more harm than good to the finish.

[68Mustang]

That's all right I have spayed and extra truck lid so that I can practice on. I just need to know what step I need to take?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Wet Sanding New Paint Job

Originally posted by 68Mustang
Help! I have a new paint job with some orange peal in the final clear. What are the proper steps of wet sanding (what grit)? then buffing to get a show car shine? (what pads)?
Also what compounds will I need to get a really nice deep shine. I have 3 coats of clear on it.

Hi 68Mustang,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

If you've never sanded down a car, (a paint job), and if you've never used a rotary buffer to buff out an entire car, then diving in head first to wet-sand, cut and polish-out a new paint job is a lot to tackle your first time.

Even if you have experience using a rotary buffer, sanding down a paint job and then buffing out your sanding marks is a lot that carries with it a certain amount of risk even for seasoned professionals.

[RedSoxRacer]

It will be very difficult for someone to walk you through the process that it will take to successfully wetsand and bring back the paint to a high quality finish by typing responses to you. There is a lot to learn, and it takes a lot of practice and patience. If you still feel like going at it, you could probably do a search online for a "How to" article on wetsanding.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by 68Mustang
That's all right I have spayed and extra truck lid so that I can practice on. I just need to know what step I need to take?

We have a how-to video on sanding and buffing, we would recommend ordering it and watching it to get the basics down. I can post the link, but it will be faster if you call Customer Care at 1-800-347-5700 and order it over the phone and have it shipped as fast as you can justify.

The thing is, you're working against a window of time where the paint is soft and what you need to do is sand it and buff out your sanding marks while you're in this window of time.

[Mike Phillips]

The basic steps will go like this,

• 1) Soak sandpaper at least 15 minutes before using, overnight if you have the time.
  2) Start with #1500 to knock down the orange peel and get the finish flat.
  3) Re-sand with #2000 to reduce the depth of your sanding marks and make buffing them out easier and faster.
  4) Remove the sanding marks using a compound like our M85 with our W-4000 wool pad at around 1500 RPM.
  5) Remove any swirls and haze left by the compounding step with a second rotary buffer step using a cleaner/polish with a foam pad at between 1300 and 1500 RPM.

Then, depending upon your goals, you'll need to do some more polishing work, how much more depends upon what you want. If you want a 100% swirl free finish, we can show the extra steps to take to get there, if removing the orange peel and the majority of swirls is your goal you can stop after the second step. This is what most body shops do, but it's highly likely there will be swirls in the paint still.

Hope this helps...

[68Mustang]

They say I have 72 hours and it has only been 18 hours? When I paint I purchase and extra truck lid to practice on. Then after the 72 hour window they sai to wait a week to complete it. That was right from PPG paints that gave me the information.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by 68Mustang
They say I have 72 hours and it has only been 18 hours? When I paint I purchase and extra truck lid to practice on. Then after the 72 hour window they said to wait a week to complete it. That was right from PPG paints that gave me the information.

Like I said, call Customer Care and order our how-to video as fast as you can financially justify, if it were me I would have it overnighted and in the mean time I would be gathering my supplies.

Find a local PBE store or call Customer Care and purchase,

1 sleeve of Nikken #1500 Finishing Papers
1 sleeve of Nikken #2000 Finishing Papers
2 Quarts of M85
1 Quart of M84
1 Quart of M83
1 Quart of M80
1 W-4000 Wool Pad
1 W-7006 foam cutting pad
2 W-8006 foam polishing pads
1 G100 Dual Action Polisher
1 or 2 E7200 Backing pads
1 16 ounce bottle of M0016 Hi Tech Wash
Lots of microfiber polishing cloths

Again, what kind of quality you want will determine what you purchase to do the job. Lot's of people skimp on the wet-sanding, cutting and polishing work and in the end it will look like it.


The above is a small chunk of change, but you have to ask yourself this question,

"How much money do I have into the entire project?"


This includes things like all the work and time to get the car to where it's at right now? The sacrifices you have no doubt made, things like driving a second car all the time you've been working on your dream car.