hey what's up Tony from learn auto body
and paint.com and what I want to talk to
you about today is sandpaper for color
sanding and buffing all right I've been
getting some questions on YouTube
channel and all that stuff so what's
different about this video is we're just
going to talk about it on whiteboard I'm
going to do a little bit of drawing
examples uh but if you want to see the
true sandpaper grits and the physical
tools and all that stuff check out my
other videos on YouTube or on my website
learn Autobody and paint.com we have a
ton of more information uh that goes
over everything related to Autobody and
custom painting so just be sure to do
that and also after watching this video
if you're on YouTube click the like
button below and click the link in the
description it'll take you over to the
website where you can get a free 85 page
Auto bu body and paint manual uh that
has everything you need to know about
auto body and painting in text format I
think you're really really going to like
that so uh here's the main question that
I'm getting from a lot of people uh what
is the best sandpaper grits to use for
color sanding and buffing okay uh so
let's let's just start say that you
finished painting your car or your
touch-up panel let's just say it's a
complete job you just did right and uh
you have a little bit of paint texture
on it and a little bit of orange peel
and all that stuff people are asking
what is the best sandpaper grits to cut
that down flat with and and start color
sanding and buffing okay so um some
people uh start with a th000 grit
actually okay 1,000 grit I personally
don't like it uh unless you're cutting
you're trying to cut out a big sag all
right a sag is like an area where when
you sprayed uh you have a big heavy
saggy clear coat area not really a run a
run is a drip you could see more of a
drip but a sag is where the whole clear
coat just it's so thick in one area it
just starts pulling down all right so
sags yeah I would use about 1,000 grit
or 12200 grit to flatten that whole area
out and I'm going to show you a little
example of what I mean by flattening out
uh the clear coat before you buff okay
but I normally like to start with about
12 to 1500 grit now when sanding you
could dry sand or you could wet sand uh
there's a couple of different techniques
if you're a beginner if you're new to
this I recommend wet sanding because you
have more leeway from mistakes you're
not going to cut as fast all right um
and it'll it'll take a little longer
time sanding it wet sand by hand with a
block uh than da sanding it dry sanding
it with the you know with a da I like to
use about a 12 to 1500 grit dry this way
while you're sanding you could basically
see that you're cutting to a flat
surface all right you're going to see
the orange peel and the paint texture
flatten out and disappear while you're
dry sanding it and it's easy because
when you're wet sanding and you have all
the water on the panel it's hard to see
if you're flat or not you have to get a
shammy dry it off make sure you're in
the Sun or blow on the panel
to to make it dry and evaporate so you
can see if you're cutting enough in one
area or not you know what I mean but
with dry sanding all you have to do is
just dust off the panel and you could
see if it's cutting flat or not that's
the cool thing about dry sanding um I
have complete step-by-step videos on the
VIP training site on this whole process
both wet and dry sanding I show you how
it's done both ways uh so if you're
experienced uh you're more confident
with the D day uh and with just doing
body work and not afraid of messing up
dry sanding is a quick way to cut down
all your panels This is what I do now
and then after that I go over the whole
thing I wash it down so to say with
2,000 grit a wet sand all right just to
smooth out the, 1500 to 2,000 and then
you could buff on top of that okay so
that's what I like to do all right I
like dry sand da with 1500 grit or wet
sand if you're not experienced I would
go with 1500 wet sand and then move down
to 2,000 grit wash it like get it all
flat with you know smoothing it down
make sure it's you're going to be
buffing over 2,000 grit uh and then you
go ahead and use the one two three stage
uh uh buffing steps that we show you
exactly how to do uh on the website if
you check out the website uh check out
the VIP training course it's all in
there and uh we have thousands of
members that love our trainings and full
support so it's not like you're alone
anymore you're going to get complete
support and uh you're not going to be
alone with your projects that's the cool
thing about it all right so 1,500 down
to 2,000 and buff I got a couple of
comments well one comment from one guy
uh out in Europe somewhere he's like he
was like really bugging me and saying
2000 grit what am I lazy am I lazy for
buffing over 2,000 grit he was like no
way I would never buff over 2,000 always
over a 3,000 grit and let me tell you
something I've been doing this for a
long time since I was 13 I'm 30 17 years
I'm in the business all right I've hung
around auto body shops we have an auto
body shop and uh it's just unheard of
nobody Buffs over 3,000 grit maybe in
Europe they do but you're not going to
see any difference okay you could buff
over 3,000 grit or buff over 2,000 grit
you're not going to see a big differ you
well you're not going to see a
difference period I can guarantee that
after you color sand and buff over 2,000
grit with your wool pad then your foam
pad and do the glaze and all that stuff
it's going to look like glass and my
projects prove that I've been I've had
cars and car shows uh taking Awards and
all that other stuff and I know how to
put on a gloss check out some of my
other YouTube videos of the completed
projects that we did and uh you you'll
be amazed all right so 2500 to 3,000 is
overkill don't worry about it you don't
have to sand to 3000 grit weird kind of
guy and you want to get really really
tedious then hey after you 2000 wash it
down with 3,000 but I just I'm just
saying you're going to be wasting your
time 2000 git is plenty plenty plenty
fine to buff over to get amazing glass
finish results okay so this myth is
busted in my book hardly anybody ever do
does this it's a waste of time don't
even bother getting 2500 to 3,000 grit
sandpaper you do not need it 2,000 is
the most you want to sand and then you
buff on top of that okay uh okay quick
quick little
demonstration uh I just wanted to show
you what I what I mean about flattening
out so think about uh looking at a panel
all right sideways so say we just
painted a hood of a car and we're
looking looking on the hood you know
like this at at the texture of the paint
okay what you're going to see is it's
probably going to look something like
this
okay okay that's what it's going to look
like and when you're color sanding and
buffing with your when you're color
sanding and buffing with the block here
let's use this as a block right you're
going to be sanding like this right so
let's just say we're sanding like this
okay you're sanding you're sanding
you're sanding
and you're going to notice that the tips
of this this texture Orange Peel right
you start to cut it right you start to
cut down after you
sand right after you fully sand flat
it's going to look flat just like that
you're not going to have this RI this
little texture Orange Peel or the paint
texture whatever you want to call it on
your paint job it's going to be flat
like that that's what I mean by
flattening out your clear coat before
you buff it you want to make sure it's
flat you want to make sure that after
you sand it your panel here is a matte
color a matte
flat flat color okay so if you put it in
the sun or if you look at it just looks
dull looking all right so when it looks
dull looking like that once you have it
down to like, 1500 grit or 2,000 grit
you're ready for buffing all right
you're ready to put your Compound on it
you're ready to put your wool pad on it
and start buffing out your panels all
right so I hope you learned something
from this little presentation if you
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learn aut body and paint.com I hope you
like the video I'll see you in the next
on
ciaoo