Had a conversation with a painter that changed my mind about wet sanding

I've been in collision repair for about 6 years now, and I always thought wet sanding before clear coat was a waste of time. But last Tuesday, a painter named Dave who's been doing this for 25 years at a shop near downtown Portland called me out on it. He said, 'You're just hiding your mistakes under more paint, not fixing them.' That hit different because I realized he was right. I was spending extra time laying on thick coats to cover up scratches instead of taking 10 minutes to wet sand and get a smooth base. I tried his method on a 2018 Honda Civic rear quarter panel last Friday and the finish came out way cleaner with less orange peel. Has anyone else had an old timer call them out on a shortcut they thought was fine?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesf417d agoMost Upvoted

Wet sanding changed EVERYTHING for my clear coat work.

joel_hall177d ago

Whoa, you mean like the actual scratch-free magic happens at that point?

the_jessica5d ago

Wait, you actually think wet sanding works better than just using a quality compound?