Final Sanding - what grit paper ?

[stevemclaren]

Hey Guys

Just doing the final sand on a non-painted GRP hull ... has plenty of swirls/sctaches on it from removing very old decals on it.

What grit should the final sand be before I hit it with the cutting/polishing compound ?

Thanks and regards

sm.

 

[carribbean soul]

Re: Final Sanding - what grit paper ?

1500 or 2000

 

[stevemclaren]

Re: Final Sanding - what grit paper ?

Thanks buddy ! I'm on to it !

 

[gm280]

Re: Final Sanding - what grit paper ?

It depends on the scratches you are trying to remove. Yes 1500 and 2000 grit will be the final grit to use, but if you use that fine of paper, you could be wasting a lot of paper before you get anywhere close to needing those grits. You always start with heavier grit paper and work your way up to the very fine grit paper. So you may need to be using 320 grit first. And then 400, 600, 800, 1000 and so on... Sanding is a step process and doing it properly will save you so much time and elbow work too... Not knowing or seeing the scratches you are working with, I'd say use a sand paper with just a finer grit then what you used to get the decals off initially. So if you used 220 grit paper to remove the decals, then start with 320 paper and stop when you remove the 220 grit scratches. Then use 400 to remove the 320 grit scratches and so on... Then is how sand paper works the best. If you jump to 1500 grit paper to remove 220 grit scratches, buy a lot of 1500 paper and be prepared to work a lot of your elbow work... JMHO!

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Final Sanding - what grit paper ?

gm280 is 100% "Spot On". It's a step process. In my experience once you get to 1200 grit you can do the rest with compound. Compound is just about the same as using 1500 grit and there are different grits of compound.