I was wetsanding an old AE86 Corolla that a friend of mine just bought. The paint was in pretty rough condition, but after wetsanding with 2,000grit and polishing with a dual-action buffer, it looked much better.

Have any of you done this to your car? How did it turn out, and care to share any tips? If not, then I guess I will be the guinea pig.

Thanks
Jon

only a tip here ....a little dish soap in the wetsand bucket keeps the paper clean.

Tap off the moldings on the car otherwise you will get scratch marks in them, i did that.. :( doh! on my old car haha

i ve done wetsanding before. just make sure to apply pressure as evenly as possible. since its an ae86 you are dealing with, the paint is much more forgiving since there is no clearcoat on it. i recently worked on a corolla with paint splatter on it which needed to be wetsanded. here are some pics.

http://forums.kaptainmyke.com/index.php?showtopic=3370

*if anyone in NYC want their car(s) detailed, lemme know*

Originally posted by AznKaos15
i ve done wetsanding before. just make sure to apply pressure as evenly as possible. since its an ae86 you are dealing with, the paint is much more forgiving since there is no clearcoat on it. i recently worked on a corolla with paint splatter on it which needed to be wetsanded. here are some pics. http://forums.kaptainmyke.com/index.php?showtopic=3370 *if anyone in NYC want their car(s) detailed, lemme know*

Actually the the Corolla that I was working on does have a clearcoat. However I am thinking about doing some wetsanding on my Eclipse in hopes to revive the color a bit.

Should I only sand in one direction?

Thanks for the tip.

wetsanding is a last resort process. by no means is it something to do to simply "revive the color". from the pics in your sig, all you need is a good polish. stay away from wetsanding unless you really really have to. in the link i posted to kaptainmyke, i only wetsanded the paint splatter, everything else was polished, like the hood. since the paint is metallic, the sun kept it from looking black in the pic.

btw, did the 86 get a repaint? i ask this because a car that old should have a single stage paint.

yea you shouldn't have to wetsand your car Jon.

Just go with a polish on a rotary buffer, or whatever kind of buffer you can get your hands on if you don't know how to use a rotary.

Well I must say that pics do the car justice. I need to get a repaint, but was hoping that there was some way ( wetsanding ) in the meantime to help revive things to buy me some time until I have the money for a repaint.

There are a few parts that are getting pretty bad. I have tried some 3M polish on a dual action buffer and it didnt make that much a difference, hence why I was thinkng of wetsanding.

You all have been really helpful. Anymore thoughts?

Thanks

i used a product from turtle wax, and it has color specefic formulas to revive shine and depth. they make a green (and the wax is green) polish/wax in a liquid that covers a large gamut of greens. i used this on my car and i could not believe the depth i got back. i actually got this from my grandpa...and i have no idea where he got it from but thats my suggestion.

Originally posted by 96eclipse2nr
i used a product from turtle wax, and it has color specefic formulas to revive shine and depth. they make a green (and the wax is green) polish/wax in a liquid that covers a large gamut of greens. i used this on my car and i could not believe the depth i got back. i actually got this from my grandpa...and i have no idea where he got it from but thats my suggestion.

Dude you are so right on this stuff if you ever run out let me know I have 4 more bottles of it got it at walmart and it does work.

Originally posted by madhatter210

Originally posted by 96eclipse2nr i used a product from turtle wax, and it has color specefic formulas to revive shine and depth. they make a green (and the wax is green) polish/wax in a liquid that covers a large gamut of greens. i used this on my car and i could not believe the depth i got back. i actually got this from my grandpa...and i have no idea where he got it from but thats my suggestion.

Dude you are so right on this stuff if you ever run out let me know I have 4 more bottles of it got it at walmart and it does work.

Originally posted by AznKaos15
by the way, that turtle wax stuff is only temporary, it uses oils to hide swirls as it says on the bottle. the "deep" shine you are seeing is jus the oils. after a while, when the oil wears out, u ll be back to square one.

Yea your right ....it is why I bought so many bottles lol I think the longest it has lasted is 2-3 weeks before I re-waxed, it depended alot on the weather really as to how long it lasted. It does leave a nice shine and deep look though for any "hey look at me I'm shiney" needs.

what kind of dual action polisher are you using? what kind pads are you using? and how are you using it? if the polish does not work, try some 3m fine cut rubbing compound. if compound doesn't work, i think you might be facing clearcoat failure. which will need a repaint. as always, try the cheapest first.

Originally posted by 95greenhrcgs
Well I must say that pics do the car justice. I need to get a repaint, but was hoping that there was some way ( wetsanding ) in the meantime to help revive things to buy me some time until I have the money for a repaint. There are a few parts that are getting pretty bad. I have tried some 3M polish on a dual action buffer and it didnt make that much a difference, hence why I was thinkng of wetsanding. You all have been really helpful. Anymore thoughts? Thanks

by the way, that turtle wax stuff is only temporary, it uses oils to hide swirls as it says on the bottle. the "deep" shine you are seeing is jus the oils. after a while, when the oil wears out, u ll be back to square one.

I was using a Porter Cable "dual-action" buffer,a "cutting" pad and 3M polish but NO wetsanding on my car. Wetsanding was on the AE86.

i also use a porter cable and 3m products. when i first bought my car, there was literally a cloud effect all over the paint where the color really needed to be revived. this was caused by buffer burns and bad swirls from the previous owner. even then, there was no need to wetsand. i did everything by hand up until a month or 2 ago when i picked up the porter cable. i thought what i did by hand previously was good, i was wrong. the porter cable does wonders. from your response, you are on the right track, jus give it time to work in the polish. i posted pics of my car before, check it out. it was from before i got the porter cable. the car now has a better reflection and shine, i just don't have a digi cam to take new pics. if only my car was black...

http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=7&topic_id=76360&mesg_id=76360&listing_type=search