Wet Sanding

Wet Sanding Briefly Explained

Contrary to popular belief, there’s no great mystery in wet-sanding. In fact, the only reason it’s called “wet” sanding is because that’s exactly what it is–sanding with the addition of water. Why water? We use water because the ultra-fine sandpapers (like 800 to 2,000 grit) are easily clogged up by paint particles. And once sandpaper becomes clogged, it’s useless for everything but scratching up your paint job. Oddly enough, all that is required to prevent this clogging is water. You simply run a little luke-warm tap water into a small bowl or sand near your tap, dip a small piece of ultra-fine sandpaper in, then commence sanding. Just be sure to keep dipping the sandpaper into the water or rinsing every now and then.

When sanding paint or clear coats always use 1500 grit or finer sandpaper for this (I use 2000 grit usually). Stop and dry off the car body every now and then to be sure you’re not sanding through the layer being sanded. Be especially careful of ridges or sharp details in the casting. It’s very easy to inadvertently sand through the paint on raised areas.

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