I'm looking at prepping my Firebird for a new coat of paint. My dad is going to do the paint work for me, but he's pretty buried and hasn't had a chance to go over prep with me.

I'm going to have the car sprayed in the same MRM color, the front and back bumpers are almost completely devoid of their clear coats. A few dents here and there, but my dad can take care of that minor body work.

What are some good tips/tools to remove the old paint? Will be doing this in my garage, don't have any air tools. What tools and grit levels of sandpaper are recommended to strip it all down?

I will be installing a 6LE sail panel and a WS6 hood in the paint process.

 

If you're going to prep an entire car by hand you're going to wish you have a compressor. Check out your local craigslist and see if there is a small 3 gal compressor. Or even local auction houses. Should be cheap. then you can get a DA sander and go to town.

If you're going with the same color, you don't need some paint stripper or anything like that. Probably start with some 220 on the big areas.

 

If you do use a DA be CAREFUL on the bumpers & what not because it will burn through quick. Also be careful not to make any flat spots on curved surfaces like the doors. A DA is alot quicker for sure but you can't beat good ol' black & hand sanding.

 

I'm not an expert, but this is what I've done on the only two cars I've ever painted. I washed the heck out of the car, then let it dry real good, then rubbed the car down real good with paint prep solvent. I did this with the idea of making the sand paper last longer or preventing it from getting clumps in the sandpaper. I've used a little black and decker palm sander. Both cars were painted the same factory color. I started with 150 and then went to about a 300. I made sure to keep the sander moving and sand evenly. As mentioned above, be careful not eat into plastic or rubber parts, be careful around curves, and even on metal...be careful not to get it hot.....it might just cause the metal to warp??? I don't know. Any stone chips or rust in the old paint I sanded and feathered off real good so the new shiny paint didn't make it stand out. On creases or sharp areas, I used a medium density foam block and sandpaper. On both vehicles I didn't go all the way down to the metal, except in areas where there was rust or big pits in the paint....I just sanded down below the clear coat and a little bit into the base coat. On areas where I went down to the metal, I used self etching primer and then lightly re sanded. After all that was done, I washed down the cars real good with just plain water and then wiped it down again with paint prep solvent again. Make sure you wash it a couple days before your Dad sprays it, or otherwise any little water trapped in any crevices will come right out when the air from his spray gun goes by. For me both vehicles took about a solid half a days worth of work just sanding but both of the vehicles had a lot of stone chips and spots where there was rust under pinholes in the old paint. That's the only insight I can offer....and again, I'm no expert, but both vehicles came out decent and the paint never peeled off or anything like that. If anything I think some of the flaws in my two paint jobs were the result of improper gun set up and lack of good lighting...not from my prep work.

Oh and safety wise, make sure you wear at least some kind of dust mask and have decent ventalation. Good luck.

 

if u dont have air get a decent elect disc sander that is dual action bosch makes a nice one with velcro pad...feathering paint you will need at least 150 grit.. then prime all areas u had to work.. an final sand with 320....its going to be a long road by hand.. but thats what will make it flat an smooth.

 

If you're set on stripping it and don't have a compressor or electric sander, I'd suggest a chemical stripper. Be sure to use one that's intended for fiberglass on the doors, roof, hatch, and spoiler. I wouldn't strip the bumpers unless its peeling already. Sometimes its hit or miss getting good adhesion to raw plastic.

If the paint is in good shape overall I'd just block the whole car with 220 and treat what you have as primer. Then prime wetsand and paint. That's how I did mine.

 

You'll learn that in general there are "general" guidelines on what grit of sandpaper to use for prepping various stages of "painting" from bare substrate (metal, plastic, etc) to primer, to primer sealer, to the basecoat paint itself, but the BEST recommendation is to find out what paint system you're going to use to primer, sealer, and basecoat, etc and get the TDS = Technical Data Sheet. Once again this is the best recommendation as one paint system may recommend lightly sand the original finish (if not repainted already and not too thick) to X grit, and another might by Y grit. So you don't want paint failure later on. Each paint line will have different prep procedures and this will be outlined in those sheets. Where ever you buy your primer, sealer, paint, etc. from you can generally ask for this in person for a printed out sheets of those products or look them on the paint manufactures website.

 

Posted comment in wrong thread..

 

When you say strip what do you mean? Strip as I’m down to metal or strip as in clear and paint?


Doing it without a compressor is totally doable. I strip cars down to metal with strip discs on an electric angle grinder then sand 80 grit with a DA.

in General you want to wash the car first, remove emblems, etc and get to it.

Typically I:
strip to metal, DA 80 grit
weld and metal work
wax and grease remover
2 coats epoxy primer over bare metal
Scuff and Skim with body filler
cut with 40, shape with 80, glaze coat filler
sand with 80 finish at 180-220
1 coat epoxy primer to seal filler work
scuff and shoot 2k high build primer 3 coats
block 180-220
repeat as needed
sand finished straight primer with 400 wet 600 wet
epoxy reduced 25%
3 coats base + drop coat (metallics)
3 coats clear