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I'd recommend using lots of water and no soap. No point in introducing another variable. Just keep that sandpaper clean, and change it often. Lots of water.

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Well.. as I mentioned... the one value of the soap is to encapsulate the dirt/dust/bugs and allow them to be rinsed off easier.

With just water, there is the chance that the static bond of the dust to the small particles may enable them to cling to the body parts ( almost like a magnetic attraction )unless you really are forcibly spraying the water hard at the areas being rinsed.

But you did make me think of another more scarey variable that has to be taken into consideration... and that is the 'quality' of the water you are rinsing with.

Let's face it... some folks in the rural areas or even in the suburbs have what is known as 'hard water' - in that it is heavily laced with chemicals etc. Normally in those areas, the households have 'water softeners' in their house to remove the 'hard water chemicals' for drinking and for laundry. I don't know the overall effect that a 'hardwater' rinsing would have on a coat of fresh paint etc...

Another wild variable that impacts other areas, is where the water is heavily laced with chlorine. The water filtration plants use the chlorine to kill cetain nasties that their water filtration plant is unable to remove via filters. Chlorinate water could be a real beeech on some paints ( probably more affected on the black or very dark paint job ). Usually you can tell if your in an area with overly chlorinated water, just by the taste alone. BUT for some folks who have never known 'real water' or 'simply pure water' and who have always drank chlorinated water, they might not be able to tell that their water is highly chlorinated.

I know that in our city, the water is ranked in the Top Ten for North America... for purity and for taste. And I do know that when I travel and drink a glass of water in smaller towns... well their water usually sucks. To me it has a flat boring taste. I don't know if that means their water is simply not filtrated enough or what their problem is...

Tee hee... see... you raise a question about whether or not to use a bit of liquid detergent ( we are only talking about less then a tablespoon full in a regular size water bucket ), and I go off on a tangent about the quality of water for rinsing in different regions..

But I guess the moral to the story is that there are indeed a lot of variables involved in all stages of the painting... and you have to think through how each thing might impact your final result ( temperatures, humidity, water quality, etc etc etc )

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