Just wanted to find out some tips that you guys may have on painting exterior items since it goes through a lot of abuse from the rain and sun and what not.

question on clearcoating/sanding: i'm using high gloss clear coat (polyurethane) and when i spray it is does not look very "wet" looking (am i not using enough coats?) also, i sanded my base coat down with 1000 grit wet sand paper to smooth out the orange peel and dulls the color of the base coat when i do this. is there a way to bring back the brightness w/ sanding and/or more clearcoats? i also sand down the clearcoat with 1000 grit wet paper to get rid of the orange peel on that also... the finish is very soft to touch, feels like glass, but it's just really dull looking. anyways on brightening it up? maybe a different method? i tried plastic polish to see if it'd brighten it up, didn't work. thanks.

you need to polish the clear after wet sanding. most shops use a power buffer to do this. Rubbing compound and a cloth will work, but its slow.

awesome, thanks randy

are you sanding your xA? it shouldn't need that kind of work. all you should need to do is maybe use a dual action polisher. if your paint looks dull now, they you sanded too much and you will need to re-clear it. are you using aresol clear or using a paint gun?

ah nah... smoked my sidemarkers and i wet sanded it and then cleared and wet sanded again and it came out dull looking... i went home on my lunch break a little bit ago and rubbed it down with some 3m rubbing compound... VERY CLEAN now, can see my reflection and everything... thanks again randy. when it was dull looking i had it on my car and it looked like it didn't belong on it, now it matches the car's gloss. :D