What Grit Sandpaper Should I Use?

Start with 320 - 400 grit to dull the original paint.

Unless you have rust or cracking paint, rough grit like 60

is not necessary.

The Early Prep Pictures  and

Late Prep Pictures show oversanding.

There are patches of metal (covered with red spray primer) and

areas of gray primer.

Eventually, there were sanding sessions

grits 100 -- 170 -- 240 -- 320 throughout

the whole car!  It is not needed to remove

all the clear coat on the car.   Unfortunately, I did not know this

when I first began prepping the car, and thought it all had to be

removed.  The picture of the left front headlight with the 40 grit grinding

disc  (in the Prep Picture Gallery) shows clear coat chipped off.  I used a 40 grit grinding disc

to chip off the clear coat, because wet sanding it off was taking too long!!! You can see 

the heavy scratches I made into the metal. Unbeknownst to the beginner, who never had

anything to do with automotive work or paint, the clear coat especially where it is not peeling, is rock-hard.

The only thing gained

from this exercise of unnecessary work was a study of the

different layers that make

up the original paint coat.  Under

the clear coat is the red base coat, and under that,

is the gray primer, and after that, is the 

metal.

If the clear coat is peeling and unstable, this is a reason to

do more sanding, even to the base coat.  

Where it's smooth and stable, clear coat doesn't have to be sanded off, just roughend a bit so paint can adhere

better.

At the highly faded roof,

the clear coat is gone, and the base coat is faded.

There are 60 grit deep scratches 

in the prep pictures here, too, when sanding with

320 grit would have worked, since the entire roof

was smooth.

With no major rust in the car, it's unnecessary

to look at 60 grit or the rougher grits 100-170-240.  You don't

have to rid the entire clear coat.

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