Q&A for How to Wet Sand a Clear Coat

A clear coat makes your car's paint look glossy, like a new vehicle typically looks. A clear coat also protects your car's paint.

You should get it repainted; it's too far gone to save. If the clear coat has delaminated from the base coat and is flaking off, you need to wax and protect the clear coat from day one to avoid that.

No it's perfectly fine. You have to make tiny scratches in it to get it to look nice. Just make sure you buff after or else you'll be left with a very dull clear coat.

Keep adding compound, the hotter the compound gets, the better it is for the end result.

This sounds as if you may have burnt straight through the base coat and the grey spots are the primer underneath. The base coat is a lot thinner than the clear coat, so if you happen to get through the clear without realising, then you will burn through the base coat in no time.

Normally you will want to add clear before you sand or buff the base coat. Generally speaking, touch-ups don't adhere to the surface quite as well unless they've had a lot of time to settle in. My body guys would actually mix a small amount of clear in with the base coat to help strengthen it, put clear on top of that, wet sand to knock it down smooth, and then buff it. It's more time consuming, but the process makes the touch-up nearly invisible.

You can. But it won't look matte. It will look scratched and dull.

Clay baring is part of the paint cleaning process; it only removes contaminates in the clear coat. Wet sanding is actually smoothing and removing material from the surface.

This can be a tricky answer, as there are a number of factors: color, type of paint, single- or two-stage, etc. The rule of thumb is to provide adequate coverage to achieve desired color without an excessive number of coats, which can create a number of undesired results with paint too thick. Adequate time between coats for proper flash before next coat is the key. Keep in mind that more coats does not necessarily mean depth in the shine. Follow the manufacturer's instructions!

Ultimately it comes down to expectations and surface requirements before primer. However, there is an old saying: the way the final product looks can be expected by the amount of time, patience and materials used. Best to do it right the first time.

You can as you layer your clear coats. Color sanding between coats will help with smoother flow coats, giving that depth to your shine. Just be careful to allow adequate flash times before color sanding and flow coats. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's recommendations for flash off, proper reducers and temp recommendations, as well as the total number of clear coats. Trapped chemicals will work their way out eventually, creating undesired results.

No. Heavier compounds are for deeper scratches created by 400 to 800 paper. If you have a final sand with approximately 2000, you should only require scratch remover or swirl polish. If this does not work, wet sand again with 2000. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations with whatever brand you're using, as each has a multiple grade from course to finish compound for hand or machine polishers. Be sure to follow machine RPM recommendations.

You can wet sand on the clear coat that came on the vehicle's original paint. If you repainted the panel, spray at least 3-4 passes of clear coat, allow it to dry fully, and then wet sand to remove any orange peel or other imperfections.