i need to prep my car for paint, or i should say i need to sand my whole body down till smooth and pretty much start from the beginning. to sand the car by hand seems to be mind dulling and tedious. is there another way? would a DA be a good substitute for the elbow grease? is there any tool i can rent? there has got to be an easier way.

let me know. i want a good paint job to be the result, so if i have to do it by hand i will, but id prefer to have mechanical assitance.

 

doinh all the sanding (striping paint) by hand is not going to get a good job.. I use a 8inch DA with 40 grit to strip paint.

 

thats exactly what i wanted to hear. my only question is, if i use 40 grit, wont that take it down to the metal? will have to bondo the whole car? or will primer take directly to the metal?

not much of the body man, more the mechanical guy.
thanks for your help. also, can an 8 inch DA be rented?

 

Ok what I do(might be differnt them other)

1 wash car
2 go around hole car marking all dents than get some 36 grit sand all the dents

3 get 40 grit strip car. Now u still know were all the dents are cuz of the heavier scratches

4 pull out dents and fill

5 go over the hole car now with 80 grit than use some kind of glaze to put over all your filler.

6 going over the hole car with 180.. primmer will fill 180 scratches.
seems like a waste of paper this way. Some people like useing 80 for striping but u are going to use twice as much. And u still have to 180 it.. Theres a few differnt ways to strip a car and everyone has there way they like. Do a search u will get a ton of post about this.

When i re do my car I'm going to send it out to get media blasted.I think its 300 bucks at this place by my house. it well worth it.

 

ok i think i can do that! now what about the bumper covers front and rear? they are made of plastic and have a baked on paint coat. what do i do with those?

 

With anything that is plastic you have to be very careful. Since they are plastic they shouldn't have as many layers of paint on them anyway. Start off with 80 grit on DA but try not to tip it on it's side as much as possible. This will cause low spots. Then go over it with 180 after you have gotten all the paint off to make it smoooth. But when you get ready to paint the bumpers get the special cleaner that is for plastic parts. I use Aquamate. And until you get them painted don't use any grease and wax remover on the bare plastic. It will soak it up and hold it in the plastic causing your final paint to look awful.

 

40 grit is like gravel. I'd go with 80 and 150.