So, I haven't painted in years, and before painting my mustang, I am painting my friends as a practice project. I wanted a practice project, he wanted free labor. I also teach auto shop at the high school, so it gives my students things to do as well.

All that said, two problems have come up. 1) Kids have already scratched it in two places, so I'll need to respray there

2) Being fresh back in the saddle again, I was a little hesitant when spraying the clear and I didn't lay enough down and ended up with some bad orange peel. In the few places I went back and tries to lay it thick, it came out way better.

Question- Since I'm already going to have to touch up the two scratches that the kids messed up, can I just lay another two coats of clear on the car? The paint is 6 months old. Has not been buffed or sanded yet. I figured if I hit it with 1500 grit I could do clear on the whole car again. A medium coat and then maybe a heavier one.

What would the best process be?

You got it - sand it then reclear. I'd use 1000 grit though...1500 is not toothy enough. Spray the clear the way the tech sheet says, if it calls for wet coats (which most do), lay it down wet. I generally shoot every coat of clear like I want the last coat to look.

Thanks Chris.

Would you recommend 1000 grit on the rotary DA or is this a by hand job? Obviously it is a lot of ground to re-cover.

I've got a rectangular DA sander and the round 6" type. On that note, what's up with the sticky type of paper and the "hook and loop" type? I've always used the sticky kind, but I've noticed that most of the high grit, pre-buffing, sand paper is all hook and loop. Do I just need to buy a different head for my sander?

Yea, you need an "interface pad" for finish sanding, and it's hook and loop. If it were mine I'd hand block it wet with 1000, No DA. Just do enough to get it all uniformly flat.

600 grit on a da with and interface pad for all the large areas and finish up with a small sanding block for the rest. 1000 grit doesn't cut orange peel unless your looking for a lot of excercise.

I agree, 1000g is gonna take a while to cut the orange peel. If I were gonna sand the peel out and then buff I might start at 1000g, but if just sanding the peel out and then re-spraying I'd go with 400 grit. Will cut the peel down fast and scratches won't show when cleared over.

Re-read what he wrote...he didn't put the clear down with enough build. 400 or 600 and he will likely burn through it and into the base.

I've never had a problem knocking down OP with 1000 wet sanding.

So, if I did lay the clear on too light (2 1/2 coats, I hit hit the hood and driver fender again with the left over in my cup), could I just use 1000 grit to rough it up and then put on 2-3 more coats. Would it even out or just conform to the orange peel?

You'll get some additional leveling but it won't be a cure to the problem. Try the 1000 grit see how it goes, if it is getting nowhere step down to 800. I'm just trying to keep you from cutting through to the base.

A note on wet sanding-

Maybe this is just me, but I always have a hard time observing how things are developing with wet sanding. I feel like with dry everything blows away, but with wet I need to keep wiping it down.

Thoughts? I assume this will have to be a wet sand job.