Sanding bumps out of clear coat??

[911Etarga]

How would I go about sanding/polishing specs of dust out of my clear coat? I know wet sanding with 2000 grit had been mentioned, but will that take out bigger particles? Could I go 800, then 2000, then polish? Or am I going to wreck the clear coat?

[cgarr]

2000 wet with a hard rubber block should take them down, Over time just washing the car will remove a lot of it too, or even a clay bar can work sometimes. You will have to buff it out when done.

[the]

800 is too harsh, don't do it.

Just use 1500-2000. Go easy on the sanding. If it truly is just dust (as opposed to dirt or other large particles), it won't take much to make them disappear.

Sanding with 1500-2000 isn't the dangerous part of the operation. To get the polish back up, you need to use a high speed polisher (an orbital won't work, and nothing by hand will work) and some decently aggressive compounds.

That's where the real danger is.

I took out some dust and dirt particles out of some paint I recently did. There were only a few spots, so I just lightly used some 1500, but only right over the particles, then some Meguire's Heavy Cut Cleaner, followed by Fine Cut. Could do that by hand, because they were such tiny spots.

[David]

If they're actual bumps or drips, you can shave them (very carefully) with a brand new razor blade held a 90° angle to the surface. Then sand and polish like "the" wrote.

[rw7810]

just to add my 2 cents to what "the" said. Actually 800 grit is perfectly acceptable to start color sanding with if you just applied 3-4 coats of high-build solid and you know what you are doing. For OEM paint I might agree with "the". Also, while a good "high speed" polisher like a Makita is the best because it is electronically controled, you don't polish on the high speed, instead start at about 1000 rpm and finish with about 2000-2500 rpm. Also, you want to stay away from the egdes bec ause the paint is much thinner there. A trick is to lay some masking tape over the edges to prevent burning through there.

[Porsche_monkey]

Contrarion logic: I go with 2000 wet everywhere, and then 1500 in any spots I can't fix with 2000, 1200 in spots I can't fix with 1500 etc.

Then work your way back up to 2000 in the bad spots. This is safer and less work.

[KTL]

I agree with Craig- try clay first. You'll be shocked what that stuff can do. It pulls particles out of the paint that harsh polishes do, but without the heavy scratching.

I also agree with the use of veryfine 2000 grit if you must resort to that. You need to flush with water very frequently to rinse the sandings and help you see the low spots still present. Once you reach a uniform dull surface, you're close to done. Then you begin with the decreasing levels of abrasive polish to bring back the depth/shine.

I have to disagree about orbital use. It does work and it's much safer for the average kludge because a rotary buffer in the wrong hands wreaks havoc in a HURRY. Some also think heat is needed to cut orange peel and get a good finish. NOT true. You do not want heat in the finish. It's the polish grade that does the work, not heat.

The key to any polishing job is you must have different polish grades and buffing pads/bonnetts to accompany those polish grades. Let's call the polishes coarse, medium, fine & ultra fine. You then should have a coarse-only pad, medium-only pad, fine-only pad and ultra fine-only pad. If you think rinsing one or two pads and reusing with all different polish grades will work? Well you won't end up with a good job. I write on my pads with a permanent marker what grade polish it should be used with and ONLY used with that grade. Also wash them separately so the different grades of polish don't contaminate the dedicated pads when you throw them in the washing machine

[Canada Kev]

Try to stay away from any edges if you can. The paint/clear tends to be thinner there and so much easier to sand or polish through. Good luck.

-kevin

[Porsche_monkey]

The Porter Cable polishers get good reviews.

[Zeke]

It's simply not rue that you can't polish 2000 grit out by hand. I did the normal color sanding (I like monkey's version of the order) and missed a few places. I went back to the 2000 and finished up by hand with 3M Rubbing Compound no. 05973. This stuff is designed for use with or w/o a machine. Besides, how does one do the inside of the front hood creases and around the headlight buckets with a buffer? Then use a swirl remover and follow with your favorite wax.

[Carrman]

I've never been able to get all the swirls out by hand, or by my Porter Cable random orbital, using all sorts of compounds. At least not on large areas. On smaller areas, or on horizontal panels, can get close, but I could never get it done to my satisfaction on large, horizontal panel, like the hood and roof.

At least not on the cars I've done, which have been black and other dark colors.

The little touchup that I did recently, as referenced above, was on two stage silver, and I was surprised how easy it was to get the little spots shiny again. I suspect if it were black, though, I'd still see the swirls.

Going by hand or with a random orbital is always worth a try, though.