Wet sanding advice

rare

rare

rare

Soldato
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A few months ago I got someone to put new stripes on my mini, when they took the old stripes off they accidentally damaged the lacquer, the new stripes covered the problem but I want the stripes off. So I removed them, but the damage is still there, I put some new lacquer over it to stop it from peeling any more, but it sticks out like a sore thumb.

I cant afford to repaint the whole thing but I was thinking I would have a crack at making it look a little better, perhaps lightly sand then machine polish it? Never tried sanding before. Not sure if it will work, just hoping to make it a little less obvious. Any advice?


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Your main problem will be flatting down the mountain range of lacquer on the damaged area without wearing through the normal thickness of lacquer around the problem area. I'd start with at least 1000 grit, maybe 1200, lightly applied with plenty of water, and move up to 1500 or 2000 to finish, followed by a suitable cutting compound to get a shine. Use a flexible sanding block (e.g. cork) rather than just using the paper held in your fingers, otherwise it's easy to remove too much from an area you didn't think you were applying any pressure to.

It's most unlikely to look good after just flatting down however, unless you are incredibly lucky there will be holes/pits in the lacquer where the level is too low. This means applying more lacquer and more flatting back.

It's hard to see how far you are progressing whilst the surface is wet, so regularly flush it with clean water and dry it off to check progress.
 
Thanks for the advice, I think it might be a good idea for me to tape off the area before I start?
 
If it was a flat bit in a place that's not too obvious I'd probably have a go.

I dunno, you perhaps risk requiring a respray? What's your level of experience with bodywork?
 
No sanding experience though quite a lot with orbital/rotary polishers. Just figure for the price of some sand paper its worth trying, if I mess up then I can get someone else to repair it.
 
I got a guy I know to do it as a favour paid him cash. At the time I didn't kick up much of a fuss about it, and this was some time ago now, it has since been covered by new stripes, but now I have taken the stripes off so I need to deal with it in some way. I only applied the lacquer to ensure it wouldn't peel any further.
 
rare said:
No sanding experience though quite a lot with orbital/rotary polishers. Just figure for the price of some sand paper its worth trying, if I mess up then I can get someone else to repair it.
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Might as well give it a go with some super fine paper then. Would cutting compound be up to the job? I'm not really clued up on bodywork!
 
Thats what I am thinking. I am going to try and mask off the area, wet some really fine paper all night then use small pieces to try and flatten the area I have some pretty strong cut compound which I will try afterwards.

I will share how I get on :P
 
Looks like a nice car, TBH I'd get a pro to give it a punt.

As for whats the worst that could happen... damaging the paint (more likely around the bit that you've touched in) as well as the lacquer or messing up the sanding and having a bigger area that needs to be sorted.
 
I hate to put a downer on this but I've spent nearly 20 years earning my living doing this kind of thing and even I wouldn't expect to be able to get that perfect. The best you can hope for is an improvement, the worst is you'll go through the clearcoat surrounding that damage and it'll need repainting anyway.

There are a couple of extreme techniques I'd use on that (involving razor blades and fine filler) but I've seen pro's mess up trying so I wouldn't even begin to suggest you try them. Protecting the surrounding area with tape is a good idea to begin with until you get the major lumps down. Don't use too fine a paper at first as you want to cut it down (relatively) quickly then finish off with a finer grade that you can polish out. One tip is to use as hard a block as you can find. This will concentrate the sanding effect on the raised sections rather than a soft block which will deform slightly and sand around the edges. I use various sized pieces of 18mm MDF for this kind of thing.

Best of British!
 
If it was me I'd be saving for someone to sort it. I would hate to mess that up more. At the moment the body is protected and it looks ok. If you mess it up you will be spending money.

If your on the cheap give someone like chips away a call?
 
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