1969 Camaro restoration project - Wet sanding and polishing

We have finished spraying the Z/28 stripes, covered them in clear coat wet sanded the stripes and clear coated them again. When wet sanding stripes you have to sand until they are nice and flat, for example in the next picture it is not quite enough.

Wet sanding stripes

You have to sand until there is no orange peel left, or until the clear coat is completely flat.

We also wet sanded the entire car to achieve a completely flat mirror like finish.

#Tip: When wet sanding near the edges it is important to protect the edges with some masking tape as it is very easy to sand thru the clear coat on the edges

Protecting the edges to prevent sanding thru

Wet sanding is done in several incremental steps,:

• First it is wet sanded with 800 grit paper

• Second it is wet sanded with 1000 grit paper

• Third it is wet sanded with 1500 grit paper

• Fourth it is wet sanded with 3000 grit paper

• The purpose is to achieve the perfect finish, a dead flat, no orange peel​ mirror like finish

• While doing all this sanding great care is taken not to cut through the clear on the edges​

So basically the entire car is sanded over 4 times and even more when stripes are involved, this is very labour intensive and time consuming

We like to use what we believe is the best sanding system on the market, the 3M Trizact Abrasives

1500 wet sanding

Once all that sanding is completed it is now time to bring back the shine, here is the process.

• A rotary buffer with a cutting compound is used to eliminate all the wet sand scratches

• Then a rotary buffer with a rubbing compound is used to bring back the shine of the clear coat

• Then a rotary buffer with a polishing compound is used to remove swirl marks left by the rubbing compound to really make it shine

So again this very labour intensive and time consuming. But the result is worth it check out the result

We like to use what we believe is the best polishing system on the market, the 3M Perfect-it system

This project is now ready to go back to its owner, as we have completed the body work and paint

Come back for more, we have still many more projects on the go.