Hi, first off thank you for looking. I have a 95 Honda prelude VTEC that has been shaved and tucked and painted 4u3 from a Toyota Venza. I unfortunately have one run on the car. It's not long or thick. And luckily it's just in the clear. I did the body work on the car but have never dealt with wet sanding and buffing. The run is on the shock tower and I'm going to try my best to get it out myself before import alliance. So I have some questions. I am hoping I can get some help from experienced techs

1. My first question is what grit should I wet sand the run with? And in what sequence do I use each grit if I should use more than one? I saw someone suggest high grit to low, then back to high.
2. I am not comfortable using a buffer or ortiable, plus there is not enough room. So I plan to buff and polish by hand if possible. What compounds and polishers do you suggest I get to hand buff my paint back to a glossy shine?
3. If you have any other suggestions or tips please share. I appreciate everyone's help very much!!

-Cody

 

Picture of the bay! Circles the run!

 

Entire car if anyone cares! :-)

 

No help?

 

I am a body guy by trade... although I don't have a lot of wetsanding experience I can at least hopefully point you in the right direction. First off, make sure you have something to use as a small sanding block to sand out the rust, using your fingers will make it near impossible. A small 1.5 inch piece of paint stick or something of that nature will work just fine. Start with 1000 grit and knock the top of the run off... just enough to take the run out but not really sand too much of the surrounding clear. Then follow that with 1200 and sand anything left of the run and any surrounding scratches. Usually if you work left to right over an area and you overlap your sanding strokes you need to go over the entire work area 3 times or so to get the previous scratches out. After 1200 I would finish in 1500 and then 2000. As for compounding it I know as a second step I would use meguiar's diamond cut 2.0. It leaves a pretty good shine when you follow it with a good finishing polish. I know mequiar's makes another darker colored compound you should use before the diamond cut, but I don't remember what it is off hand.

And remember, it's always easier to go back and sand left over scratches out with 1500 then it is to repaint because of burn throughs..

 

Thank you!

 

Damn that's clean! Lovin your car!!