Color Sanding/Wet Sanding questions? Options

[SLKWrx]

Ok, here is a pretty basic question that I'm wrestling with. I'm planning on painting my car myself. I have my test pieces that I'm learning on and I have a "down draft spray booth" in the garage. I'm trying to understand what colorsanding is exactly. Well, check that, I understand what its purpose is but my question is:

Do you sand the actual color layer? After you have laid all the layers or between each one? Or is the clear what you're supposed to be sanding? If it is the clear, how does that remove orange peel or drip marks? If it is the color layer, how do you polish out the sanding scratches before laying the clear?

I'm so confused (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)
Thanks all,
-- Steve

[scotty b]

QUOTE (sj914 @ Mar 11 2006, 02:41 AM)

QUOTE (scotty b @ Mar 10 2006, 06:56 PM) I do this for a living and can tell you there are cases where you sand the base before you clear.  I have a car that will be painted in the spring which will be getting 5 coats of color, wet sanded with 1000 grit, 3 more coats of color wet sanded again with 1200 then cleared in the same manner(multiple coats, wet sanding then more coats). I only will do this on extremely high end cars (which this one is) it is the best way to get an absolutely perfect job. I have already primed and blocked this car 6 times and will block it once more before putting the color on. That said there is no need in 90% of the paint jobs out there to go that far. Once you have your clear on and it has set up at least ovewr night start wet snading with preferably 1200, but if your peel is pretty bad you can use 1000. Go up to at least 1500 before you start buffing and be very careful around the edges. get a minimum of 2, preferably 3 layers of clear on the car, that way you have plenty of paint to werk with. Is it possible to color sand the base if the base had metallic flakes? or would that be a bad idea (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

NO NO NO. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. Only solid colors can be wet sanded before clearing. Wet sanding a metallic will KILL the job! If you have a run or trash in the base that you need to take care of before clearing, you can wet sand it out and then recoat that area. On solid colors you can get away with a spot repair because the clear will blend it all together, but on a metallic repair you need to blend the repair area into the original area or you will end up with a noticable halo. I'm getting closer and closer to writing a paint article for the site (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/idea.gif)