Car bodywork – soft sanding block?

I know, I know, why do I get myself into this kind of impossible job?

Seems they are available but not everywhere.  Looks like it would be worth having though – like a sanding sponge but not covered in grit so I can wrap my own 2000 grit around it.  Is it worth having?  I can’t really feel what I’m doing with a hard block, feel like I might take too much off curved bits, currently using my fingers.

I did a course at 3M on wet sanding and refinishing automotive paint.

It was a 5 day residential course, I’m honestly not sure it’s the kind of thing I would recommend an “enthusiastic amateur” to undertake (on an actual vehicle)

Not being funny, it’s just not that sort of job in my opinion.

I still HATE doing it, and it makes me nervous every time, even after proper training and good few years practice. (And a good quality coating thickness gauge)

What are you doing? Polishing out nibs? I’ve been doing the job 20 years and never needed a soft block

I’m honestly not sure it’s the kind of thing I would recommend an “enthusiastic amateur” to undertake (on an actual vehicle)

Me neither.  But due to the cost of professional body work, I find myself with little choice.  I either let it rust, splodge some paint on it and let it look shit, or try and do a good job on the off-chance I can improve it.

You use a hard block then big yim?  Cork?

Cue “where to get a decent wing respray” thread on monday morning…..

I said it cost too much.  It’ll still cost too much on Monday morning.

Been cocking up paint jobs on rust repairs to a greater or lesser extent since I got my first car, don’t worry.

i bought a soft block in bnq for wrapping my wet n dry round when i did full respray of landy.

did what i needed it to do.

its green and has a rhombous profile.

no idea on brand.

Just bought a sanding sponge from B&Q around which I will wrap my 2000.

What are you doing?

Regardless of what it is stay away from edges and curves.  You’ll be through the paint in no time.

When I was rubbing my car down I used lengths of the foam insulation you wrap around pipes cut on half, well a bit less that half to avoid the hole in the centre. These were nice and long to allow smooth long sanding and avoid forming troughs.

I was mostly working on filler rather than paint though.

For the couple of times I worked on paint it was wet’n’dry paper kept very wet over a couple of the cellulose kitchen sponges and being very gentle.

Or you could always do what I did when I got bored of softly, softly…

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Reading with interest as I have some paint to repair/make worse soon…

However mine is due to rust so do actually need to take all the paint off first, luckily it is in an area almost impossible to see unless you are lying down so as long as it is vaguely the right colour it shouldn’t be obvious

An old Mazda with rusty sills…..

Don’t sand through the paint….. 🙂

Big shock is it!

Sills are actually fine at the moment just right at the bottom of the rear wheel arch but the sills are surprisingly solid just starting to bubble the paint a bit so want to fix it all before next winter (that about April in Wales)

I just used a solid block, and my hand. I know hand sanding is supposed to be a no-no but I’ve never had any issues with it, right up to doing a full metal-and-plastic-up respray on the motorbike.

My approach for repairsis definitely a horrible bodge but it’s been highly effective for me- always removing damage or rust. I just go straight down to the metal, remove all rust, filler if need be, do a quick rub on the surrounding paint/clear to key it, fix a loose mask (ie don’t tape edges down, I don’t want sharp edges) but quite a long way from the repair, and spray a zinc primer entirely by eye (ie, I don’t spray right out to the mask, it’s just to catch wild spray). Then wetsand to remove any edges/gradients and smooth everything together, and just shoot the basecoat over both new primer and a little old paint, and then the same for the clear but a little wider. So there are spots where it’s just primer/base/clear on metal but also bits where I’ve shot variously primer/base/clear over good paint/clear, right on up to just base/clear over paint/clear, and then just clear over clear.

Like I say, it’s a bodge and it’d probably get you fired, and you can spot the repair if you really look- but mostly because the new clearcoat isn’t covered in 13 years of swirls. It depends on your colour too, mine were both nice solid colours that aren’t fussy about primer or thickness or anything (and hycote do excellent colourmatch cans for them too).

And at the end of the day, it’s about what success looks like- is it perfection? If so you’re screwed but my repairs look a million times better than the damage did, and only a little worse than a pro job, so that’s a win.

we use something like this at work, soft one side and harder on the other. With furry backed sandpaper pads it works a treat, sanding down car paintwork for machine polishing. 2500 grit mind, but can still do some damage in the wrong hands

Ordered more paint 🙂

Going to remove the bonnet and do it in the garage.  And have some faith that the base will look ok once the clear is on.

We still don’t know what you are up to.

I liked a softish rubber block, about the same softness as a squeeze, I got it
from brown brothers and I never saw them again. I used the hard rubber blocks and
they work fine. You can see how your doing as you just remove the guide coat.

I use 320 or 400 dry on a plasterzoate block now.

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I got some soft foam sanding blocks from halfords, the grit is stuck on them so probably not great for cost if you are doing lots of work but they seem to have lasted well for odd jobs.

The yellow tube of rubbing compound they sell is amazing for getting out scuffs and scratches, and making old matt paint shiny again, T Cut is crap in comparison.

We still don’t know what you are up to.

There were a load of bad stone chips on the front of the bonnet when I got it that started to rust deeply. I managed to fill them and cover up enough to to stop the rust but I’m trying to make it look passable, at least on a car that is 12 years old and generally scuffed up. Does not have to be perfect in the least.

I’ve sprayed the front edge a few times, going to keep going learning as I go til I’m satisfied. I need one of those Amazon dash buttons for paint 😉

I know many will mock me, but think of it as a project that I want to figure out.

I did it before on a car with flat colour, but this is metallic do I am figuring out the relationship between base and clear coat. I’d read that you should sand between the two, but that appears to be controversial with many people saying not to.

If it’s a proper Base coat you won’t need to sand especially if it’s a metallic.

Edit just read that it is a metallic. DON’T TOUCH IT!

The Base coat will just clog your paper and put scratches in it.

You will spend forever trying to sort that out.

I don’t think there is any controversy. You shouldn’t touch a metallic before putting clear on.
I don’t like to wipe or tack a metallic basecoat,  any upstanding metal will get get moved and show when it’s cleared. Just get the clear on and deal with any issue afterwards.

Thanks for useful advice folks.  I think the instructions on Halfords’ website suggest sanding which is where I got the idea.

The paint is from VW – only annoyance is it’s a bit more expensive than the Halfords ready mix and I have to collect it from the dealer.