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Ok, holy crap, I now have spaghetti arms from 4 1/2 hours of sanding. I tried to go over the whole car and only got a haff rough sand with 800 on most of it. I know I could do more, but how much am I supposed to take off with the 800? I think I could spend another 8-10 more hours on the thing, only to re-do it again in 2 more coats!

I think I'll make sure to thin it out a bit more next time to make sure the hint of any orange peel is gone.

I can't even think how little the 1600 grit would do. I'll be out there tomorrow at 9 am washing it, finish the bad spots, then go for coat #3 and #4 by dark.

- Roadster


you take off as much as you need to until the orange peel is gone. you can frequently wipe off a spot dry where you're sanding. if it is uniformly matte finish, then you've leveled the paint. if it's matte with shiny spots/dots, then you've not leveled the paint. you're essentially trying to abrade the peaks down to the same level as the valleys. if you need to use 600 grit or something to cut faster, that's fine, as long as it's not your final coat. check the surface frequently and only continue sanding until the surface is uniform, when you reach that point, move on.

if you need to use 600 or 800 grit on your final coat, in all likelihood you will sand through the last coat and into the coat under it before it's perfectly smooth.

personally, i think you could lay it on fairly thickly until the 3rd to last coat. let that set and then sand it smooth with a fairly gritty paper (600 -> 800 -> 1000) then thin the paint more and do your final 2 or 3 coats and let it flow out. then you can wetsand that last step with 1500 or 2000 grit. because in reality, you shouldn't be seeing the 3rd or 4th coat down and spending a ton of time smoothing out the base coats doesn't make that much sense to me. you'd get the same effect as laying it on heavy and sanding at the 80% point of painting.