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So yea, like I said before, ive burned through a couple of spots before. its only really noticible while the hood is wet. But when its dry, you can barely tell.



The whole secret to the wet sanding is that the sand paper should have hardly any pressure applied while doing the wet sanding.

What I did to wet sand was buy one of those foamie kneeling pads that gardeners use to get down on their knees and work in their garden. It is a dense foam, usually about 1" to 1 1/2" thick. ( Actually I simply stole the one my wife had bought to work in the garden ). I cut a 4" x 8" chunk out of this knee pad and I would wrap my wet sanding paper around it.

Next. I would take a bucket and shoot about 1 tablespoon of Sunlight liquid dish detergent into the bucket and then add water.

I would next take my foam wrapped with 800 grit wet sanding paper and let it soak in the bucket for a minute or two.

Ok.. so at this point I have a nicely soaked wet sanding paper. I would then take my hose and put the nozzle to a fine mist. I would give the painted surface an initial wetting to get the surface generally wet.

With one hand I would begin wet sanding, while with the other hand I kept the nozzle and the fine mist of water spraying the area that I was wet sanding. This kept the surface I was working on constantly wetted.

NOW... this is the most important thing... the wet sanding should be like a hovercraft on that wetted surface. You should not be really applying much if any pressure to your sanding block. The whole idea of the wet sanding process is to simply skim over the surface letting the sand paper nick off any high points in the overall surface.

The reason I was using a 4 x 8 surface to wrap my sandpaper is to distribute evenly and over a wider surface the sanding process. This lessens the chances of too much of a concentration of sanding on one spot.

Now the only deviation in this process is when you are working on the edges ( whether they are the outer edges of the panel you are working on, or maybe even the edges of any shapes that have been stamped into the metal or fiberglass surface ). At those spots you really do have to lighten up even more and use as little pressure as possible. The high point of the edge will always want to sand down faster then the lower surfaces around it. So just back down on the pressure being applied there.

Ok... so once I have gone over the entire surface I then turn the hose loose at maximum spray and blast the entire surface. The whole point at this point is to try to fully remove any artifacts or 'mud' ( the wet sanded paint that was loosened and mixed with the detergent ).

Hopefully after a good blasting of water during this 'rinse' cycle, there are no contaminants left of the freshly wet sanded surface. I then let it dry thoroughly.

Ok... I should mention at this point, hopefully the water you are spraying the car with does not contain high mineral content or heavy amounts of chlorine ( like some well waters or heavy type waters where you have to use water softeners in it ). If you are stuck in that unfortunate situation, hopefully the next stage will level the playing field for you. The following also applies to those of you who have normal water as well.

Ok... assuming the surface is now thoroughly dried, it is time to take a clean cottony cloth rag ( preferably white ) and pour some mineral spirits on to it and get it good and damp. Next ring out the cloth so that it is not soaked... but overall it is wetted lightly. Now... give the entire surface a good wipe down.

This should do two things...

a ) it will remove any leftover artifacts that the rinsing stage did not get. Your white wiping cloth may show some color being picked up.

b ) it will put a temporary shine on the wet sanded surface. This is kind of cool because you can visually see how that wiped area might look if you had polished and waxed it....

Ok... at this point I would give the surface 30 minutes to an hour to dry and let any of the mineral spirits that were spread on during this wiping stage to fully evaporate.

You could at this point have your paint prepared, rollers at the ready and whatever else you need for adding the next two coats of paint. You could, just prior to applying the next coats run a 'tack' cloth over the surface just to remove any dust, hair, dandruff, bugs or whatever else may have fallen on to the surface during the intervening 30 minutes to an hour.

That is about as sanitized and prepped things are possible. So you should be able to go ahead now and start laying on your next two coats of paint.

PS : That picture of your car hood freshly soaked with water glistened like a mirror. You should be happy. With any bit of luck that is where things will be ending up by the 8th or 10th coat. Water is an invaluable tool at helping us see how things will look at the end of the project.

Marq