Sanding to make touch-up paint smooth

[pwssycamaro]

Saw a video on youtube on how to smooth out and blend my touch up paint. Basically steps are: water, sand with 2000 grit, wipe off, wax on then wax off, then some thin polisher. Repeat till paint is smooth. I did that 2 times, now my paint is hazy and it wont come off. What can I do to correct the haze and other touched up areas?

[KillboyPowerhead]

I'm no expert but I do some painting here and there.

I assume you're wet sanding (soak sandpaper in water and wet the paint)? When you wet the paint does the haze disappear? If so then that's a start because that means the clear coat has been damaged but not penetrated.

You'll want to wet sand the touch-up until it's flat and smooth and can't feel it when you slide your finger over it (maybe put tape around the touch-up so that you don't cut into the clear coat around the touch-up too much), then go over the whole area with a rubbing compound then polish. If you don't have rubbing compound (basically a more aggressive polish) then you can get away with just polish, will just take longer.

If wet sanding is taking a long time you can try 1500 or even 1000, or if that makes you uncomfortable just stick with the 2000 - again it'll just take longer. Once smooth, just keep going with the polishing as evenly as you can around the whole area until no more haze.

[Tajefe Couple]

I'm with Killboy in that I've done some work here and there on my cars over the years. IDK that if it was me would get to aggressive with the grit, maybe 1500. Of course be careful not to burn the paint/clear when buffing. I like to use about two or three stages of rubbing compound, polish, then wax. Don't forget to let that paint/clear cure good before polishing. GL

[Bigdumogre]

Looks like you added a lot of touch up paint. Next time try the syringe method and let it naturally fill the paint.

[CamaroDreams76]

Yeah I did it one time on my rear bumper. It never got smooth like I thought. Made the paint super hazy and had to polish the hell out of it. I wont be wet sanding again

[BRZN]

The haze won't come off, it's sanding marks you've induced into the clear. Wax will hide it somewhat from a distance, but the sanding marks are there. Machine polishing will cut the clear down to the bottom of your sanding marks making the appearance good again. There isn't much clear on a factory paint job, so beware!

[Joe M 2012 2SS]

Wet sanding is not needed to remove excess touch up paint. Langka Blob Eliminator can be used instead.

Wet sanding should never be done on modern clear coat without a paint thickness gauge, as it is very thin.

I'm assuming you don't own a machine polisher. So what you will need to do is get compound to remove the 2000 grit sanding marks that caused the haze on your paint.

The area will need to be fully cleaned and clayed before using compound and a wax pad by hand.

Use very light pressure when doing this and work the compound until it becomes clear. The clear coat is already thinned out due to using the 2000 grit, so you want to remove as little paint as possible going forward.

The best compound I've used by hand is Carpro Fixer. A machine will always get better results, but this will get really close to them by hand.

Ditch wax on your paint for protection. Since your car has a black base coat, in direct sunlight the paint will heat up above 130* during the summer. The wax will evaporate at this point. Use a sealant instead.

[mikeman]

Normal lacquer based touch-up paint will not sand at the same rate as the factory BC/CC paint. You risk burning through the factory clear. I'd get touch up paint that is BC/CC.

[U LUZE]

Normal process is sand with 2000. Then sand with 3000. You'll then want to polish it preferrably with a orbital. But it looks like you might have went a little too deep.