Most Common Auto Body Sand Paper Grits – 80 Grit, 150 Grit, 240 Grit, 320 Grit, 400 Grit, 2000 Grit

The Best Auto body Sand Paper Grits Exposed

Are you wondering what types of auto body sand paper you need for your project?

When first starting out with auto body and paint and automotive customization, you may be a little confused of the many varieties of sand papers to choose from.

Here is the most common auto body sand paper grits used today for auto body shaping, refining and finishing purposes. 

We’ll start with the most common 80 grit sand paper. With 80 grit paper you can use it for shaping your first coat of body filler don’t get me wrong, you also have the option to use the notorious 36 grit paper that cuts like a shark… but in my opinion, it’s just not necessary because if you lay your body filler on thin and correctly you won’t need to sand much off anyway.

After shaping with 80 grit, I like to move up to a 150 – 220 grit paper to take out those coarse 80 grit sand scratches. And no, you don’t want to prime over 80 grit paper.

Getting your work area down to a 150-240 will set your stage for primer or a guide coat. I simply use my primer as a guide coat. These are some of the strategies that I show you in my private LABAP VIP training videos that will save you more money and have the ability to do things much faster.

Finalizing with a 320-360 can be a good base for a cheap enamel paint job (if you want to paint directly over your sanded paint) or a thick coat or two of some 2k primer if you want to paint over primer and or use a base coat clear coat application. Water sand that with a 400 and your good to shoot. 

Again, if you’re first starting… this may seem a bit confusing but for now I hope you understand this. If not, don’t worry, the VIP Course covers it all and takes you by the hand through the entire step-by-step process.

Finally, you come to your color sanding and buffing stage ( if you used clear coat over your enamel paint job or if you painted a 2 part system aka (base coat clear coat). You can cut your clear with 1200, 1500 and a 2000 grit papers.

Some guys like to cut the clear down flat with a 1000 grit paper, but I personally don’t like to for specific reasons. 1. you can get deep sand scratches, 2. you can eat up clear fast. I usually start with a DRY 1500 on a DA sander with a velcro pad.

Once the clear is cut flat, I switch to a 2000 and wash it down wet sanding. Now you have an ultra smooth surface to start your color sanding and buffing. Then on to the next blog post about color sanding and buffing.

I hope you enjoyed this short blog about the Most Common Auto Body Sand Paper Grits – 80 Grit, 150 Grit, 240 Grit, 320 Grit, 400 Grit, 2000 Grit.  

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Be cool,

Tony