Is clearcoat usually replaced if wet sanded?

[kzyman13]

I'm just wondering at what point you would decide to repaint the clear coat. I believe if clearcoat is repainted you wait about a week and buff it out. I"m not currently working on any thing specificly just trying to gain some knowledge after a discussion I was having with a friend.

Also what happens if you go through the cc? Is it time to repaint the whole panel?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Is clearcoat usually replaced if wet sanded?

The way it's done is in most cases, if the shop where the car is being painted knows the car is going to be sanded and buffed they will apply some extra clear so there's enough extra clear to sand off and then buff.

Remember, the sanding process removes some paint and the buffing process also removes some paint. So extra paint is sprayed, this can either be heavier coats, (thicker coats), or more coats, depending upon the style and ability of the painter and/or the paint system they use.

Fresh paint is easier to sand and buff and this is where the confusion comes into play, on other forums members read about wet-sanding and no one includes the fact that the majority of all wet-sanding is done in body shop situations where fresh paint is being sprayed, since this part is left out the members reading about wet-sanding come away thinking it's something they can do on the factory finish on their new car which is baked on so it's completely dried and hardened and it's also thin because it wasn't sprayed with extra clear with the intention of being sanded in the next day or two, instead it is finished being assembled as it rolls down the assembly line and then shipped off to a dealership.

Make sense? You read about the big picture on this forum because Meguiar's makes the products used by body shops to do the wet-sanding, cutting and polishing process and we have been doing this for almost our entire history so we have this knowledge and expertise.

As for going through the clear, if a person sands and buffs through the clear it's possible to do a blend and only re-clear the effected area and it's possible to re-clear the entire panel, that's up to the painter and what he has to work with. For example if you sand through the clear coat of a metallic finish and sand on the metallic basecoat, you can quickly remove enough basecoat to change the appearance of the metallic flake so that the entire panel will have to be repainted. All kinds of variables like this.


What are you working on?

Fresh paint? Factory paint?

[Bert31]

Re: Is clearcoat usually replaced if wet sanded?

Great reply Mike, thanks!

The only time I have wet sanded is when I have been applying touch up paint to a chip and I am sanding the "blob" down so the surface is level.

[jfelbab]

Re: Is clearcoat usually replaced if wet sanded?

I recently read that the new Lexus LS460 is now being wet sanded in the factory, not once but twice, in order to achieve a perfect mirror finish. I examined one in the showroom recently in black that was as flawless as I had ever seen on any car. Hope this is a trend and moves to other models and manufacturers. I hate orange peel.

According to Lexus, standards of craftsmanship were raised to higher levels for their new flagship. A more lustrous paint finish involves wet-sanding of the entire body twice by hand a rare treatment for production vehicles.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Is clearcoat usually replaced if wet sanded?

I recently read that the new Lexus LS460 is now being wet sanded in the factory, not once but twice, in order to achieve a perfect mirror finish. I examined one in the showroom recently in black that was as flawless as I had ever seen on any car. Hope this is a trend and moves to other models and manufacturers. I hate orange peel.

If that's their new process, I'll take a shot in the dark that also a part of this process is spraying more top coat onto the car for the reasons outlined in my first reply.

I'm with you on this Jim, if that's the new procedure for Lexus, more power to them and lets hope other manufactures follow their lead. I think this will lead to manufactures using paints that are more polishable because if Lexus finds their technicians have any trouble at all working on the paints they're spraying onto their cars then someone in management must be able to figure out if their own technicians are having problems then it's safe to assume their customers and professionals in the detailing industry would also have this same problem and that would bring attention to the problems of paint polishability and hopefully solutions to this problem as in switching to paints that are more easily worked on by car owners and detailers.

You can't say that about the current state of affairs as it applies to all paints being used on all cars.

[Bert31]

Re: Is clearcoat usually replaced if wet sanded?

I'm with you on this Jim, if that's the new procedure for Lexus, more power to them and lets hope other manufactures follow their lead.

I would have to think this procedure will be limited only to more expensive cars such as Lexus. I could see BMW and Mercedes doing this and maybe GM going this direction with the Corvette but I don't see the auto manufacturers incorporating this into the everyday cars. It would be very difficult to recoup that labor cost in marking up the price of cars since 95% (or more) consumers don't care and probably don't even recognize orange peel.

I think this will lead to manufactures using paints that are more polishable because if Lexus finds their technicians have any trouble at all working on the paints they're spraying onto their cars then someone in management must be able to figure out if their own technicians are having problems then it's safe to assume their customers and professionals in the detailing industry would also have this same problem and that would bring attention to the problems of paint polishability and hopefully solutions to this problem as in switching to paints that are more easily worked on by car owners and detailers.

I could see Lexus moving to more workable paint if they notice their technicians spending excessive amounts of time per car (ie more labor costs per car) but I don't know if they would think about the average home or professional detailer. Again, so few people really worry about detailing their cars that it may not even enter their minds. I hope you are correct though.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Is clearcoat usually replaced if wet sanded?

I used the word hope...

But you're probably right...

Meguiar's helps a lot of people learn how to work on their car's paint and I get to see first hand the frustration people experience because most clear coat paints just are not very user friendly, especially when working on them by hand.