Anyone ever color sand a car?

Is color sanding easy? Hard? Easy to screw up? Tips?

In reply to Andy Reid: I've done it many times, on new and old finishes. It depends greatly on the following:

Old or new finish?

Original paint of re-spray?

Single stage or two stage?

Type of paint?

Color?

What problem are you attempting to correct?

Tell me everything you know about it because it all matters.

Respray, single stage, palatino yellow, the Fiat. I know the paint shop will mess stuff up so I will be trying to improve the finished product. Thanks by the way. Is that enough info?

Thanks for the info, but I need a bit more! Is the paint a urethane or hardened enamel, or? How long since it was sprayed? I'm not sure I understand your statement about the paint shop. Do you not trust them to sand and buff it?

Andy Reid wrote: Respray, single stage, palatino yellow, the Fiat. I know the paint shop will mess stuff up [snip].

Go to another paint shop. Seriously.

Not completely, they will buff it but not likely sand it. It will be a new respray of the original color, basically just to clean up the look for the car. It is a hardened enamel.

I've done my Sprite a number of times - it's finished in PPG Delstar acrylic enamel.

A couple recommendations and precautions first:

• Cleanliness is key! a single speck of grit can put deep scratches in that are a b1tch to get out.

• Meguir's sells packs of abrasives specifically for this purpose which purportedly have a more uniform grit size than the regular stuff. I've used it in 1200-1500-2000 grit and it's very good.

• Wash the car thoroughly, then rinse each area you're sanding before and during the process.

• You're removing very little paint - I generally fold a sheet in 4 and use it w/o a block. I have a water bottle w/ a couple drops of detergent in the water as a wetting agent which I frequently use to flow any debris away.

• A silicone squeegee and microfiber towel are used frequently to inspect the area you're working on. When it's uniformly "flat", ie. no orange peel you can move on.

• Once the whole car is perfectly "flat" I then cut the paint with a lambswool bonnet on a power buffer and a fairly coarse compound. Remember to buff OFF of edges, not into edges.

• Wash the car after the sanding, and after each step of buffing.

• Work down from coarse on wool down to hand polish and glaze.

• My tiny car took a full day to sand and most of a day to buff out. You can't rush a good job.

I have done it. As recently as last month. No claim of particular skills in the matter. Quite the opposite in fact.

Easy to screw up? Yea, if you're feeling macho. It's a "fine touch" thing. Use fine grit, use a light touch. You're not trying to sand the paint off the metal, you're trying to dislodge just a few molecules on the surface.

Home Depot doesn't have fine enough paper. On, they've got 1500 and sometimes 2000 grit wet/dry 3M paper. That's not fine enough. You will still see millions of fine tiny scratches with this. You really do want that silly feeling 3000 and 4000 grit paper.

A buffer and foam pads at the end. I don't know how you're supposed to know when to get to this step, and I probably jump too early. But in the end, this is where that mirror smooth gloss finally lies.

Don't skip steps! Going from 1000 to 2000 grit will not work as well as going 1000 to 1500 to 2000. Skipping steps take a lot longer and produces much worse results. Some day, I should learn this. Be it color sanding a car or sanding a wooden board.

Thanks guys. I have always wanted to do this and now I have some guidance. I will not be skipping any steps and am having a friend who has done it a few times over to consult, and drink beer, as I do it.

Thanks again. I will let you know how it goes. If it goes well then I will likely get more money for the car at the Monterey auction it is going to. :)