Just throwing up a pic, here is my car, went from Maaco White (crap) sanded down and painted Flag Blue (Interlux Brightside).

Its been almost a week, how long until I can claybar it? And, I do not have a random orbital polisher. What would happen if I tried to hand polish it with something like tutlewax polishing compound?

you can rub it out within a few days. polish is ok too. but NO wax for at least 3 weeks!

what would happen if you did it by hand? you'd be the karate kid.

I have waited a bit over three months to do the final wet sanding and detailing on the car. I've mucked around with the hardtop and some other stuff before (and before my accident last year after which I had to re-paint it all again...).

I'm starting with the hood and so far I have spent about 5 hours wet sanding it. I started with a very gentle 1200 sand, basically just to get the crud off the paint and to get through the worst of the orange peel.

Then I spent a couple of hours with 1500 just going really slowly and doing a section at a time until I was happy with the result.

The last couple of hours were spent on some quality time with some 2000. People have mentioned before that the paint starts to get a shine just from the 2000 sanding. You can see what they mean by the pic below.

http://swoolmer.bigblog.com.au/data/...0710215306.JPG

Once I have finished the detailing of the hood I will post some more pics showing each stage of the process. By then my holidays will be over so I'll then have to try and do a panel per weekend until it's all finished. So I hope that I can avoid women in 4x4's for another couple of months....

hrm. for the time involved I'd rather just pay someone. lol

Most people would do the same. But what would they be able to learn and achieve by doing so?

I'd much rather say to people that "I did this" than "I paid someone else to do this for me". That's me though.

+1

And you'd probably do a better job of it yourself since you'd be working on your own car !
You can pay somebody to do it for you but usually they'll just fly through it and it's never a perfect job in the end.

Hey AussieDriver: any updates on your 2000 grit wetsand job to cut down the orange peel? Any new pics or a procedure?

I just put the first coat of wax on the car today. Ended up claybaring it before waxing. Never did a polish job or used any cutting compound. Due to the results posted on here so far I didn't want to try it (or go buy the equipment). I would have nothing against trying to use 2000 grit to wetsand down the car as long as it came out with a polish when it was finished.

Here are some pics of the car cleaned up (note, any flecks that look to be in the paint are actually raindrops, started sprinkling just as I backed the car out of the garage. Yay, Florida summers...):

http://www.grozio.com/images/IMG_2666.jpg
http://www.grozio.com/images/IMG_2668.jpg

damn that looks pretty nice. Out of curiousity, did you primer the car before painting?

No, I had just sanded the car down with 320/400 grit before painting. I also painted over a few small spots of bondo where I filled in nicks and chips, and the badge holes.

oh shit! just noticed the De Lorean across the street ... BAWLA!

Yeah thats my other toy. Had to move it out of the garage in order to get the Miata away from the hot sun to wax it.

talk about a quirky little car eh?

Man, that paint job came out nice. I'm curious to see how well it holds up. I might paint my car like that. Awesome Delorean too.

Thanks for the comments. When you get close up the orange peel is somewhat noticeable and if reduced by a bit would be perfect. Its hard to tell in the pics, my camera doesn't do good up close. Thats why I am looking to see how AussieDrivers wetsand turns out. :)

So far the paint has held up well. The first day I had it out I hit a bug on the nose and didn't clean it up for 2 days (sidetracked w/company visiting). Florida bugs seem to be very acidic and with the paint not fully hardened (only had been on 48 hours but I was rushed) the bug guts ate through the fresh layer (and only the fresh layer). Now that its hardened I wouldn't expect that again.

Also it seems to show water marks easier than before. Probably because its darker and I am not used to it yet. Helped a bit when I waxed it. As we get a rainstorm every day here the marks have been less noticeable since the weekend, and now the water spots wipe right off (post first wax job).

Do you all suggest using a Clear Coat after all the base coats? Or will a wax be sufficient.

depends on the type of paint. some require clear coat, others dont use it.

I am definetely going to do this.

I want more of a semi flat black like this:

http://img.waffleimages.com/751df231...erc_cls_sm.jpg

But the boat company doesn't make flat blacks :(

diffrent i wanted to tru out painting one with black board paint could be quite amuzing wen ur sat outside the pub with ur mates