The result of 30 hours+ of wet sanding on an Edition 30...

[Top Cat]

Ah! ok, so how much clear coat is left after the sanding and the correction process. I noticed the depth before starting but does that measurement include the colour as well. 

[keith]

excellent write up, a guy cam into my shop on saturday and mentioned this he was looking for uni grit papers. youve started something

[vRS Carl]

Outstanding 

[RussZS]

excellent write up, a guy cam into my shop on saturday and mentioned this he was looking for uni grit papers. youve started something

Haha really?

Do you stock it btw?  I'll be needing quite a few sheets for what I now have planned...

[n_d_fox]

Ah! ok, so how much clear coat is left after the sanding and the correction process. I noticed the depth before starting but does that measurement include the colour as well.  

Yes, the reading will be total coatings on the metal so will include any paint and clear coat... general rule of thumb is about 30-40 microns of clear coat on a OEM finish.

With Russ' car he started on the passenger wing with this

DSC01850 by RussZS, on Flickr

Wet sanded with 1500 and got this

DSC01871 by RussZS, on Flickr

Then 2000 and got this

DSC01892 by RussZS, on Flickr

2500...

DSC01895 by RussZS, on Flickr

3000...

DSC01904 by RussZS, on Flickr

Then Scholl S3 on a Scholl wool pad = pretty aggressive. To remove the sanding marks

DSC01919 by RussZS, on Flickr

Then refined with 3M polish and pad.

DSC01923 by RussZS, on Flickr

So as you can see... there is a total removal of around 4 microns which is very good for this type of defect removal... as Russ showed in the thread on DetailingWorld, on a softer paint he was able to remove 6-8 microns with a DA machine and the Megs MF system which is pretty scary !

It's obvious from the results gained that this process is about as good as you can get for getting the best possible finish but as Russ also said, its the time that it takes and the skills involved that make it the "extreme" end of detailing. Most people, although they would love the finish, wouldnt be able to justify the cost of having this done over a "normal" correction detail.

Sorry for the hijack Russ... was just looking at the pics from the set and thought i'd help you out  

Regards, Nige

[Deako]

Stunning Russ. Happy to see you finally complete this after we discussed it so long ago back in the summer. Excellent!!!

[WhiteGTI]

That is incredible! Though, i wish i understood how on earth it worked?! I mean, sanding a car's paint to make it more shiny.....  eh???

[stealthwolf]

You make it flatter by evening out any peaks in the clearcoat. It's polishing but a bit more extreme. If there were no imperfections, it'd be a mirror!

[n_d_fox]

That is incredible! Though, i wish i understood how on earth it worked?! I mean, sanding a car's paint to make it more shiny.....  eh???

If you look at the full write up on DetailingWorld you will see pics of Kelly using a microscope type machine which is connected to his laptop and shows a very magnified image of the paint... in that pic you can see scratches which are not apparent to the naked eye.

Now imagine that scratched surface side on... it would look like a wavey / wiggly line.

When you machine polish a cars paint you flatten that wiggly line down a bit. Wet sanding does the same thing but at a much more intense level but as the pics show not by taking off much more of the clearcoat. The flatter the line the better the finish.

[jimk04]

Are the depth readings just the clearcoat or the base colour aswell.

If its both - how do you know the depth of the clearcoat that you are removing?!

My car now has aftermarket paint - (done at a VW dealers) - does this throw up an unknown regarding my paint depth?

Amazing job BTW....very impressed

[stealthwolf]

Dammit it didn't post.

Basically you can compare paint with that from the door sills/ inners where the clearcoat will be thin or nonexistent. Gives an idea. Respray will be thicker.

[JPC]

good work russ!

Its certainly an asset to be able to properly wet sand. Its good to see you are taking training seriously, there are far too many people calling themselves detailers that would sh*t themselves when handed some sandpaper!

[RussZS]

good work russ!

Its certainly an asset to be able to properly wet sand. Its good to see you are taking training seriously, there are far too many people calling themselves detailers that would sh*t themselves when handed some sandpaper!

Thanks Jay, and you're absolutely right.  When Kelly approached me it seemed like a great thing to do, and something I'd been talking to a couple of others about as I like to do these things properly.

I have noticed not many Pro's have commented on DW though... what do you make of that?

Thanks all - I now need to decide what to protect it with over Winter!! 

[Tfsi_Mike]

Car looks like glass Russ  just had a propper read start to finish of the DW thread, fantastic work.  I must start saving for some hardcore tlc like that for the Cupra!

[craigy123]

Excellent work Russ.