sanding orange peel

[DJ RaYgU]

OMG! My whole car is an orange...well sorta. After reading pman's guide to compound and wax, i wasn't sure how to sand my car down. How do I sand it? Do i sand it so the surface of the paint is smooth or do i sand it just enough to remove the orange peel? THanx for the help!

[tdoty]

Well, I think you'll kill 2 birds with one stone. If you sand off the orange peel, the whole car should be smooth.

It depends on the paint, but I'd say knock it down til it's fairly smooth. If you sand through the paint, touch it up, and continue. Once the whole car is fairly smooth, top it off with a clear coat and polish that.

HTH,

Tim D.

[tdoty]

Oh yeah, be sure to use at least 800 grit - preferrably 1000, 1500 or 2000 grit - WET. Mix a drop or 2 of dishsoap into the water before sanding. It'll help break the surface tension and clear away the crap as you're sanding - keeps the paper from loading up.

Tim D.

[themodelkid]

Well it depends on how many cotes of clear you have on, the more coats the less chance you have of burning through, this is what i do:

After 3 coats of clear(the clear i use is fairly thick), let it dry overnight, then i wet sand it with 800, then re-clear again. After another 8 hrs then i wetsand with 2000, the i use rubbing compound, then glaze, then hand glaze. I use the 3M Perfect-It polishing system, but using tamiya compund and wax will pretty much do the same thing. Any way, like said before, if you have enoguh coats of clear on, sand it smooth then polish, but if you dont have much clear on, just sand the majority of the orange peel out, (not completely smooth) Then polish that untill shinny shinny shinny! , so you dont have to repaint the car. Hope this helps!