Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Aesthetics What grit sand paper do I use?

800 is over kill and it won't cut it down enough. To give you an idea, 600 grit is used on cars to re-clear coat them.

If I were in your shoes, I'd first uninstall them. Then wash them with lotion free dish soap and HOT water to remove any wax or grease (armor-all,ect). THEN it's ready to wet sand with 400 grit. All you need to do is evenly sand the areas you're repainting, making it a nice even dullness. Once you've done that, repeat with 600 grit. Wash again and allow to totally dry (I'm sure the vents can hold hidden water)
*Note- The reason it comes out smooth after sanding is because the 600 grit scratches are fine enough to be covered with a coat of paint or clear without showing through. It's thick enough to just flow out and mask them.*

Then it's ready to spray the color (remember, painting with more color will not make it hold up better. That is the job of clear coat.) Spray many very light and even coats that are allowed to be dry to the touch, rather than trying to do it in one or two heavy coats.
Then it's ready for the clear coat. Same idea as the color, do it in many light coats. Bottom line, don't spray too much of anything or you'll encounter sags, drips, crazing or many other bad things.

Depending on how well it turned out, you can even take it to another step and sand it with 1000 grit, then buff it with a fine rubbing compound, then 1500 grit and finish with a good polish (to make it short ans sweet). But if you take your time with the painting process this can be skipped if it comes out real nice.

sweet, thats the kind of answer I wanted to hear

Be very cautious if you do choose to "cut and buff" your newly painted dash parts. When sanding along edges or any other sharp line it's fairly easy to just burn right down to the bare plastic. I have to repaint my rear chrome strip because of doing that, and I'll tell you.....I was because that means I have to go back to step 1 when I should be enjoying how it looks on my car

but if I go down to the bare plastic wouldn't it be covered up anyway?

I'm going from platinum to glossy black

I mean as a final step after everything has been painted to remove any orange peel or the like and have everything come out like glass. (the 1000 and 1500 grit step...)

oh yea I understand you now

i nice glass finish, that would be nice