OK, so I'm a rookie at his but learning fast. Had two small pin head size white chip marks on the hood of my black stratus. Used touch up paint to fill. All very neat so far. I then wet sanded them using 2000 grit wet and dry (wet of course). Not very agressive and not for long. My mistake was that I tried just sanding just the chips so it was sanded in two areas about the size of a dime. Buffed up using rubbing compounds - heavy, medium and light and finished up with swirl remover. Looked really good, nice and glossy.

The Problem: in the light now you can see two slight dimples in the hood.

Question: should I wet sand them again but over a large area (using a sanding block) to try and smooth out the dimples. Never went below the clear coat so still lots of paint left - I hope)

Thanks

Best thing to do is repaint the entire hood from bare. Strip, prime, paint, clear coat.

If your finish is OEM, Lacquer thinner will remove excess touch up paint but will not dissolve the OEM finish. I find this useful alternative to sanding.
and with practice can level most touch up paints such as duplicolor touch-up paint.
ALWAYS TEST AN INCONSPICOUS AREA BEFORE ATTEMPTNG THIS.

Thanks for the comments. I really don't want to repaint the hood and the danded dimples are small. Could then be filled in with touchup paint and then resanded?

you could do that but you have to remove all the polish from the touch up paint and lightly sand the paint to make a rough surface for the paint to stick to, when you sand be fure to "feather edge" the paint a little further to prevent the same problem from reoccuring. TAKE YOUR TIME! black is the hardest colour to make a good shine on, and if you make any kind of mistake it WILL show!

Someone asked me about wet sanding today. What exactly is it?

using sand paper with water instead of by itself

ghost guy has it right

This is an old thread. But heres a tip for wetsanding. Get a bottle of water and put some soap in it (like dish washing soap, but not for your dishwasher machine). The soap act with the water to create a better lubricant so you dont sand through as easily.

Great tip! One thing I noticed is 2000 grit is not used with laquers or emanels much. The touch up paint is most likely laquer , interesting sounds like a good steady hand and lots of patience! I like that.

Great tip! One thing I noticed is 2000 grit is not used with laquers or emanels much

I've wetsanded acrylic lacquers with 2000.

Its wierd , I had some issues with several cars we bought from an auction. They were painted and could see the sanding marks under the paint so I went to the auction and had a look at there body shop. The guy used 1000 gritt sand paper for finish which should be barely noticable but also noticed how agressive he was with the 80 gritt at the start. He didnt cross hatch he just dug the sand paper in past the primer then sanded the surface with the 1000 gritt after , it was so rough and looked retarded. I would also use 2000 gritt wetsand paper for the acyrlics. I mostly play with enamel paints , all I need is 320 gritt for finishing but this is the old fashioned way used on classics and not intended for nothin newer.