What grit sand paper?

[Spliff]

I'm starting on sanding my bike using 180 grit...and frankly, it sucks. I'm doing it RIGHT, so I'm sanding all the way down to the plastic and its takin forever, any tips on what I could do? Maybe a lower grit paper? I just want to make sure the grit isn't too course where its going to make any kind of lines or imperfections in the final product.

[The CyberPoet]

Are you using wet sandpaper (so the grit doesn't fill up too fast)?
I'm sure one of the body specialists around here will know the answer (it's not my specialty).

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[Spliff]

no, i'm just dry sanding right now, i figured that the primer would fill in the little scratches caused by the sandpaper. after the primer's down, i'm gonna paint a few coats, then wet sand, then clear a few coats.

[Anonymous]

180 grit?! Jeebus.

[Spliff]

why the jeebus?

[CVG2]

sand grit

I am not an expert either, but I am sanding my body as well. I started with a 150 grit for but am working my way up to 1000 grit on each piece, using 400, then 600, then 800. I read a sticky in the section on how to paint you bike by Sweetlou and it had a lot of good information, so try reading that for extra help. Good lcuk

[Spliff]

since i am sanding all the way down to the plastic and then primering, do i have to make it as smooth as possible, or can i just leave it at the 180 grit? and am i supossed to wet sand after i prime it?

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure if the info you need is in here spliff, but give it a try

http://www.katriders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=716

[Micdalen]

Typical applications would use 80 grit, the problem is the plastic body work. 80 grit is way to aggressive for this. It can be done but with finesse and patience, the problem is the resultant sanding scratches.

Best way to remove paint is get a stripper to start with. Then utilize 180 to removel the leftover that the the stipper did not remove. Kleenstrip makes a stripper called Peeler. This removes the clear and color coat, but leaves a fair amount of primer if any. Several coatings and patience will eventually remove all the paper.

Also no need to go all the way to 1000 for paint prep. 320 is actually adequste and gives agressive enough abrasion for primer to stick too.

Once primered wet sanding with 400, then 800 produces great results for base coat.

1000 grit and above is for color sanding and removing imperfections prior to rubbing out the clear.

[kahluamud]

I agree with Micdalen. I am a self-proclaimed expert, but only because I have learned from my mistakes.

You have to make sure that you do not go too fine. The paint/primer will have no abrasion to stick to and I promise that when the first rock kicks up and hits the paint, it will chip off.

800 is best. As far as what to start off with, 180 is perfect if you are using an orbital sander, but doing it by hand with dry paper will take tons of paper and hours of work. 80 grit is too abrasive and will leave too deep of scratches.

In my opinion, it is not necesary to go ALL THE WAY to the plastic. If there is still traces of the previous color, that is fine, as long as the pieces are smooth.

Do not just use primer, use primer/filler as this will definately fill in all of your scratches.

Points to remember:
-Sand it too smooth, paint will not stick well.
-Minor scratches from sand paper can be filled by primer/filler.
-Wet sand paper does not clog up as bad as dry paper.
-Clean, clean, clean.

Good luck.

[Spliff]

thanks for all the help guys. i think i'm gonna just bite the bullet and continue sanding down to the plastic (by hand) with the 180 gritt. after that, i'm gonna primer/filler it and then wet sand with 400 then 800. hopefully it will work out well.