removing sandpaper haze by hand...

[m2oswald]

I really wish I had read through this forum before I started...


Here's the situation. My wife is away for a couple weeks on a business trip, so I thought I would surprise her by finally fixing the dings in her bumper (I've been promising to do this for months now). She's got an orange New Beetle convertible, and there are 3 dime-sized dings in her rear bumper where someone backed into her.

I used a good brush to apply the paint, but try as I might I couldn't put it on without streaks. No problem, I figure: I can just wet-sand the area to smooth it out. I used 2000-grit sandpaper (3M brand) which did smooth it out, but also left a nice haze of scratch marks. I picked up some Scratch-X and tried using that with mixed results - the new paint is nicely polished, but the original paint around the touch-up is still hazy. Not as noticeable, but definitely still there.

THEN I found this forum. It looks to me like a lot of people have talked about this issue, but they always mention using a rotary/PC/DA. I don't have any equipment. Is this something I can fix by hand? Any tips or suggestions? My wife is gone for another week so I've still got time...

Thanks.

Michael

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Michael,

Welcome to our forum...


Just recently I typed up a lot of information on this subject and most of it is describing how hard it is to do what you want to do. The reason for this is because in most cases, clear coat finishes are very hard, this is one of the things that make these paints last a long time instead of oxidizing and dieing like old single-stage paints would do.

This hardness then makes it difficult to remove things like sanding marks because in order to remove sanding marks you have to remove paint and because the paint is hard it's difficult to remove paint in a way that also makes the paint look good.

It's even more difficult if you don't already own a rotary buffer and are proficient with its use.

I have demonstrated using ScratchX by hand to remove sanding marks. Depending on the paint hardness and the depth of the sanding marks it can be difficult and take a long time or fairly easy and take less time.

I see you've signed up for the Corvette Class this weekend but are you actually a member of this club?

[m2oswald]

Hi Mike. Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that. I think I'll try working it more with the ScratchX - I don't want to do anything too harsh for fear of removing the new paint. Thanks for the response.

In regards to the Corvette Class this weekend - no, I'm not a member. I wasn't sure if it was for members only, but I was hoping that if it hadn't filled up yet I could sneak in.

Michael

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by m2oswald
Hi Mike. Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that. I think I'll try working it more with the ScratchX - I don't want to do anything too harsh for fear of removing the new paint. Thanks for the response.

In regards to the Corvette Class this weekend - no, I'm not a member. I wasn't sure if it was for members only, but I was hoping that if it hadn't filled up yet I could sneak in.

Michael

I'm going to send out a reminder e-mail today and have all the members check the list to make sure they see anyone they know is planning on attending gets with the program and signs up.

Sometime on Friday I'll update the list, so please check back and look to see if you're on the primary list. If you are, make sure to pull me aside and I'll help you to remove the sanding marks.

[m2oswald]

Thanks Mike. I appreciate your help.

Michael