HELP! I'm trying to wet-sand a repair of a small area in a door (where some misguided tool slammed their door into mine and left a nice little chunk). I did so yesterday, compounded several times, waxed, and it seemed to look good, but this morning in different light, I not so happy! It looks scuffed, blemished, like it was sanded with coarse paper and not compounded. It feels very smooth to the touch but it didn't blend visually like I'd hoped. I used 1500 "grade" paper. Should I now go back and re-do with 2000 "grade" paper and a light touch? Or do I need to recompound/wax? Whaddo I doooo??? Any and all help/suggestions on this will be most appreciated!! Thanks - Frank (drummerfc) 2002 E39 525i 5-speed Sport
Wet sanding---and beyond John's link is a good primer, and may buoy the hopes of those who start one of these "wet-sanding" projects only to give up in despair. In my case, the problem is compounded because several scratches or chips go through the clear coat and even through the Alpine White III. The problem with touch-up paint is that it does not match. So I have a fairly smooth section of white that looks like a contour map. My solution is a custom spray can of Alpine White III---yeah, we'll see!---along with a can of clear. The trick with painting small areas is to go beyond the immediate injury to a point where the paint difference may not be so noticeable---the edge of a panel, a body crease, etc. We'll see how this all works out. The problem so far is finding the time to DO it!