Wet sanding paint tape edges

Whats the best technique to use when wet sanding paint edges that are left from the masking tape. In most cases I usually wet sand my rocket with 800 and then go to something like 1000 or 1500 just depends what I have on hand, but always a two stage process for me. I wait a couple days and then I apply about 6 very lite coats of clear and then 2-3 medium coats coats to get it to flow and then I call it done.

My SUMO that I'm painting will have mutiple colors and tape paint lines that need wet sanding. So hopefully you guys can give me some insight. The red portion of the rocket turned out nice on the body tube. The paint flowed pretty good, but the inner fins came out dry from the overspray. So what I decided to do is wet sand the fins and mask them off and paint them individually to get the "wet" look I want. It will look cool if the rocket turns out the way I want it.

I know I'm some what anal when it comes around to painting, but I think it's one of my weakest skills. For me it one of those areas of the build that is the most time consuming, but I'm getting better.

You might be going a bit far with the 1000+ grit paper. I'll just tell you the way I do it. The 800 is a good grit to use to knock down the edges, just don't go to far. In fact , the best way I've found is to use a piece of wood to wrap the paper around and block the edges down---I use a paint stirring stick. Wrap the paper tightly and hit the edge at abou a 45 deg angle--sanding into the high edge. Don't try and get it flush just get it smooth and close. Remember if you painted over a base coat , then the underlying paint will swell so you don't want to sand into it. After you've got the harsh egdes smoothed up, Lay a couple --or more-- of clear on it and let dry. Come back in a few days and reblock the stripes--this time at a 90 deg angle---now your just sanding clear and not the color , you should be able to get it smooth and then final recoat with clear. The 1000+ paper is good for prepolishing or knocking out dust and such. Of course after your done with this process , you'll have a show piece and not want to launch it !!!!! LOL----Bill

AfterBurners said:

Whats the best technique to use when wet sanding paint edges that are left from the masking tape. In most cases I usually wet sand my rocket with 800 and then go to something like 1000 or 1500 just depends what I have on hand, but always a two stage process for me. I wait a couple days and then I apply about 6 very lite coats of clear and then 2-3 medium coats coats to get it to flow and then I call it done.

My SUMO that I'm painting will have mutiple colors and tape paint lines that need wet sanding. So hopefully you gusy can give me some insight. The red portion of the rocket turned out nice on the bodt tube. The paint flowed pretty good, but the inner fins came out dry from the overspray. So what I decided to do is wet sand the fins and mask them off and paint them individually to get the "wet" look I want. It will look cool if the rocket turns out the way I want it.

I know I'm some what anal when it comes around to painting, but I think it's one of my weakest skills. For me it one of those areas of the build that is the most time consuming, but I'm getting better.

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Hornet Driver has given you outstanding advice on this.
If you'd like to see the process I have a pictorial Demo from a couple years back done for one of our club meetings. If you go to www.narhams.org look in the library section under Tech-Tips the demo is Tech-Tip-018 Wet Sanding Demo 05-01-10. While it is only Still photos it should give you a "Feel" for the Process. Do keep in mind this is a HEAVY Water application so be sure you seal the edges of your body tubes with thin CA before beginning.

hornet driver said:

You might be going a bit far with the 1000+ grit paper. I'll just tell you the way I do it. The 800 is a good grit to use to knock down the edges, just don't go to far. In fact , the best way I've found is to use a piece of wood to wrap the paper around and block the edges down---I use a paint stirring stick. Wrap the paper tightly and hit the edge at abou a 45 deg angle--sanding into the high edge. Don't try and get it flush just get it smooth and close. Remember if you painted over a base coat , then the underlying paint will swell so you don't want to sand into it. After you've got the harsh egdes smoothed up, Lay a couple --or more-- of clear on it and let dry. Come back in a few days and reblock the stripes--this time at a 90 deg angle---now your just sanding clear and not the color , you should be able to get it smooth and then final recoat with clear. The 1000+ paper is good for prepolishing or knocking out dust and such. Of course after your done with this process , you'll have a show piece and not want to launch it !!!!! LOL----Bill

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Thanks Bill

I just bought some paint and 3M 800 and 1000 grit last night. Have you ever used a sanding sponge? I was thinking of getting one of those just to wet sand the body of the rocket. Looks like it would work well and conform to the tube, Just a thought.

Micromeister said:

Hornet Driver has given you outstanding advice on this.
If you'd like to see the process I have a pictorial Demo from a couple years back done for one of our club meetings. If you go to www.narhams.org look in the library section under Tech-Tips the demo is Tech-Tip-018 Wet Sanding Demo 05-01-10. While it is only Still photos it should give you a "Feel" for the Process. Do keep in mind this is a HEAVY Water application so be sure you seal the edges of your body tubes with thin CA before beginning.

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I'll check it out, but I really don't use that much water or avoid a lot. I always have paper towels handy

Great tips. I am just in the process of trying to minimize some masking edges from a cow pattern, acrylic enamel white over black, so I will give this one a try.

Micromeister said:

Hornet Driver has given you outstanding advice on this.
If you'd like to see the process I have a pictorial Demo from a couple years back done for one of our club meetings. If you go to www.narhams.org look in the library section under Tech-Tips the demo is Tech-Tip-018 Wet Sanding Demo 05-01-10. While it is only Still photos it should give you a "Feel" for the Process. Do keep in mind this is a HEAVY Water application so be sure you seal the edges of your body tubes with thin CA before beginning.

Click to expand...

Where is the library section?

NOTE: At home now...the links were actually blocked from my work

AfterBurners said:

Where is the library section?

Click to expand...

On the left side of the opening page toward the top is a blue rectangle with several listings just place your cursor on Library then the drop down menu will give several listing about mid way down is Tech-Tips. click on it and the various tip listings pop-up your looking for 018.

If your not using a lot of water in this process you are NOT wet sanding. At best you are damp sanding which will not give you anywhere near the same results. Wet sanding on auto's is done with a running water hose. We don't need quite that much but you should be dripping water into a bucket or tub all the time during the process. Generally a gallon to 1-1/2 gals are used on a typical BT-80 size model. I've found over the years a 5-gal pail is just about perfect for this process giving plenty of room for positioning the model nose or tail down about 30-45° into the bucket keeping the water running while keeping it out of the places we don't want it to wet.
I still put down a water proof drop cloth while using this technique in the living room. It's a little messy but doesn't have to be super sloppy. Keep in mind we are using the water as a lubricant which is why we have to whip off the slurry every so often too keep the very light sanding action going without removing too much Paint.
Hopefully you should find the Text portion of the wet sanding tech-tip very informative...perhaps a bit eye opening.

I'm at work so maybe those linsk are block because it's not coming up. I'll check it out later

I tried this method this evening on my cow pattern, white over black and it worked great.

I would normally wet sand with my hand but this block method works well. I used a recycled rubber mat, which is flexible but firm so it partially curves around the BT. It is amazing once you clean and wipe the area you sanded you can clearly see the shiny line, in my case on the black side because the white is higher. I sanded down to the point where the line is much thinner but I don't want to go too far as the black may show through. Hopefully the next clear coat will reduce this even further, which I am applying this coming Sunday. After that I will sand again hope to reduce this line even further or eliminate, if not and I may apply one more clear.

Once again thanks for this tip it most definitely makes a big difference using the hard block and sanding across the edges.

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