Sanding the prime

I've just started to redo my Enzo, as I stripped it's paint one to many times and had to get another body, this new body is full of flaws, so out came the 600grit just to remove molding lines, smooth the cowl with the body and smooth a dent in the rear bonnet. Okay with that said and done, I noticed it looks a lil rough after a few coats of grey primer, so I ask, what would be a better grit for a smoother finish 1200? I'd prefer not to use anything higher than 1800 or so, very expensive at the LHS.

400 will be more than enough when sanding primer...anything more and it tends to clog up real fast, plus the paint will smooth the minor snad lines out.

400 grit are you CRAZY!!! that will ruin it and it will still be rough, use 1500 grit and it will be fine, thats what i use....

Josh

geez I'm sorry....I guess I'll phone my friend who works in a body shop and let him know he's doing it wrong. :sly:

You're trying to sand the paint...not polish it.

geez I'm sorry....I guess I'll phone my friend who works in a body shop and let him know he's doing it wrong. :sly:

You're trying to sand the paint...not polish it.You use polish to polish paint, not sandpaper, Go ahed you try 400 , i garentee it wont be as smooth as it is when you sand it with 1500..

Josh

400 is really rough for a 1/24 scale model. We're talking about a model not a 1:1 car.

Too put it in perspective I start with 3200 grit (which will dull the finish fairly fast) to even out paint and step through and finish with 12000. Detail Master of course.

86 SR5- If you're gonna start with 600 I would at least step my way up to somewhere around 1500 before painting.

so going from 3200 to 12000 will make paint shinnyier?

I've just started to redo my Enzo, as I stripped it's paint one to many times and had to get another body, this new body is full of flaws, so out came the 600grit just to remove molding lines, smooth the cowl with the body and smooth a dent in the rear bonnet. Okay with that said and done, I noticed it looks a lil rough after a few coats of grey primer, so I ask, what would be a better grit for a smoother finish 1200? I'd prefer not to use anything higher than 1800 or so, very expensive at the LHS.

The best way is to start with something around 1200 and work up from there. You are dealing with plastic not metal and reasonably soft plastic at that. I finish at around 2500 to 3000 grit and I end up with a reasonable mirror finish before polishing and this is using Tamiya Spray cans. If the 1800 and higher grit papers are too dear at your LHS try an Automotive accessory place (in Australia the best place is Super Cheap Car Accessories) where you can buy full size sheets of 2000 to 3000 grit papers for $1.00.

so going from 3200 to 12000 will make paint shinnyier?


No no....you have to work your way up in stages. 3200 to 3600 to 4000 to 6000 to 8000 to 12000 to wax. I like to hit it with some Tamiya compound before waxing. If you have effectively removed the previous grit of each stage you should have a mirror finish after waxing.

Sounds like people are talking about two seperate things here.

First there is the primer sanding issue. Here IMHO there is no need to use anything more than 1200 grit, maybe 2000 if you like overkill. That is a final tidying up before the colour coats are applied. For earlier work to remove seam lines, putty edges, etc, courser grades will be used.

The second issue is sanding the fully cured finish prior to polishing. This process is pretty much as nis.k.a. described it.

so in other words, i need to sand my primer to a smooth finish completely before painting? I thought the texture of the tamiya primer was what we wanted for the paint to grip.

this may seem a little unrelated, but do you need to sand a polish a color coat before you apply a clear coat ?

400 is really rough for a 1/24 scale model. We're talking about a model not a 1:1 car.

Too put it in perspective I start with 3200 grit (which will dull the finish fairly fast) to even out paint and step through and finish with 12000. Detail Master of course.

86 SR5- If you're gonna start with 600 I would at least step my way up to somewhere around 1500 before painting.


Not really talking about 2 different things as my last sentence doesn't say polish before painting. I was just clarifying the polish step as a member thought you could go from 3200 straight to 12000.

Let me verify something, I haven't put on the primer yet. However I used 600 grit to sand mold lines, and on a previous project (Hemi Hydro aka LS6 Hydro) I used 60,100,150,240,600 grit paper in that order to smooth the hull. This is a new body, the enzo had molding lines that I used 600 grit to remove, now I used 600 on the boat and it took 8coats of primer to hide the visible marks and the hull was so smooth, I practically ground my hands to the bones sanding the hull in every which direction with 600. So, what should be my next steps in sanding the enzo before primer? Hope this clears things up a bit.

I have started with 600, the 800 and the 1200, then wash and prime