I removed my rear lip spoiler because the previous owner did a crappy job when he put it on. A part of it had double sided tape which stuck on pretty good, but the rest of it had silicone and glue in different spots, which came loose and made that part of the spoiler flap around. I used adhesive remover to take everything off, but there was a deep down dark residue in the paint, so I decided to wet-sand with 2000 grit sandpaper. I did this for a little bit and then used rubbing compound to take away the cloudiness. I can still see that it's not enough though. My question is, when do you know when to stop so that you don't eliminate the clear coat completely? When I'm wet-sanding, I can see the paint color forming with the water. Shouldn't it be like a milky color if I'm only on the clear coat? Oh, and I'm doing all this by hand, not with a buffer.

 

Ya.. paint color means your through. Are you sure, though, that Audi even used a 2 Stage paint on you car? Mines looks like Single Stage, and all touch-up paints I found are Single Stage.

 

I'm not exactly sure to tell you the truth. Today though I got on it using elbow grease for like a half hour with just the rubbing compound and it actually looks great now, so I think that was the whole deal. What sucks now is that I noticed there's this one spot that I think got screwed up. There's a small ring that formed that's a darker shade than the paint that I can't get out. It must be the outside edge of a small dip in the paint that got sanded down more than the rest of the area. What I don't get is that inside the ring, the paint is the correct color and looks shiny like it still has clear coat. I think if I keep wet-sanding it, it will keep getting bigger though. This is getting beyond my expertise now. I don't want to mess it up more than it is. Is there anything I can do to fix this???

 

Not too sure, to tell you the truth.. your getting beyond my knowledge.. Presidential Detail might be able to shed more light.

 

Here's a pic of the ring. It's not that great, but you can get an idea.

 

Do you have any paint stores in your area? They can usually take a look at it and help. When you start seeing color on the paper you've gone through the clear - I would recommend getting a professional to look at it at that point. I went through the clear on the first car I painted and after a year it started to discolor and look real bad.

 

Yeah, I was thinking of going to a body shop so they can look at it. If I'd have to redo the whole trunk, then I'd rather just have the spoiler re-painted and put it back on again (the right way), to cover that spot up.