Im considering painting my car and want to save money , i figured i could prep my car and then have it sprayed.
my question is what sandpaper should i use at the different stages of sanding any tips would be great.
thank you
platinum240sx
This should probably be in Technical but anyways… if you want to save a bit of money you’ll want to prep it right, so you’ll need a few supplies:
- 400 Grit Sandpaper
- 320 Grit Sandpaper
- 180 Grit Sandpaper
- Precleaner (aka. Wax & Grease Remover)
You can get this stuff at CT in the automotive section.
This prepping job will take you to the bodywork stage, so all your bodyshop will have to do is fill the dents/dings/scratches/etc., one more stage of sanding, and prime.
Firstly, pull all the weatherstripping off, and things like badges and decals that you don’t want them to mask around.
Next, rub the entire car down with the precleaner and a good rag that’s not going to shed lint. Rub in a circular motion, in 3-4ft. areas, rubbing it off as you go with another lint-free rag. Get EVERYWHERE, in all the seams, all the body lines. Pay particular attention to the bottoms of the doors, inside of door handles, and other places that love to collect dirt. You can do this 3 or 4 times until the car is REALLY clean and free of anything even remotely resembling dirt or grease.
Next you want to sand the car with 400 grit sandpaper. Take your 9 x 12" sheet of sandpaper, fold it in half and rip along the seam, then fold that half into three. Using long (2-3 ft. or so) even strokes with a flat palm (keep your fingers flat, and your thumb way the hell away from there) sand the whole car, following the flow of the car. In other words, sand straight, not circular, and go front-to-back not side-to-side. Make sure you keep your hand flat or you will put scratches and streaks into the paint in no time at all. You will go through sandpaper fast, and as one side wears out switch to another until the piece is used up. This is why we folded it into 3.
The object here is to take away all gloss, the paint should appear completely flat when you’re done sanding. If anything is shiny, sand it again.
Now get your 320 grit sandpaper and go along all the seams and edges of the body panels. Make those edges SHARP, don’t try to round them. The sharper you make the edges by sanding in a flat straight line, the more seamless the car will look when it is painted. Anywhere that there is bumpy/chipped paint, stone chips or rust along the seams, sand it with the 180 grit until it is completely smoothed out.
Once that’s all done inspect the car for any areas you’ve missed (and you WILL miss areas) and sand where needed.
Go over the entire car with precleaner again, whiping it off with a dry rag as you go.
Drive it to your paint/bodyshop and tell them exactly what you’ve done. They will need to preclean it again as you will get it dirty on the drive over, but that just means it’s going to get one heck of a good pre-prep.
I’m also thinking of doing this this summer. Will this take out rust as well doing this process or will I have to focus on the rust for longer period of time?
“Rust” is a very broad term to use, but generally speaking I would leave everything but the most mild of surface rust to your bodyshop professional. Just make sure it’s a bodyshop that you trust not to use plastic fillers (ie. Bondo) where they should not be used.
There’s more to prep than just going through different grits of sand paper. You have to be prepared to fix imperfections like stone chips, fish eyes, ripples in the paint etc… all which require sanding, priming the surface and sanding again aswell as the use of other body shop materials that will help fix imperfections like these.
In my opinion, if you dont have very much knowlegde with painting than i would leave it to the bodyshop to do everything. A good paint job results from good prep work. If the prep work is not so good than it doesnt matter how well the car has been sprayed, the paint job will come out shitty.
Thats just my two cents.
Yes and that is why I am taking them through the very first step in prep. This is by no means to be considered a finished job. However, there are very few people in this club who are capable of properly repairing, hammering, stretching, filling and pulling dents. Nor are they capable of correctly feathering or disc sanding.
I’m giving advice for people who want to do some of the basic stuff which is hard to mess up and easy for the beginner. Something that saves the bodyshop some time, and the customer some money.
I’m no expert myself by any means, but I am in the process of learning and I’m just trying to help out by sharing some of what I know. The person who’s teaching me definitely knows what he’s doing; that is something I can easily prove!
Furthermore, this is a guide for people who have paint on their cars. If your car is painted with rubberized rockerguard you may want to look elsewhere for a guide before pretending to know what you’re talking about.
“If your car is painted with rubberized rockerguard you may want to look elsewhere for a guide before pretending to know what you’re talking about.”
my car is a rubber black 240sx … i know what im talking about. thx for the rest of the info it was re ally helpfull
It looks like he did give some valuable info to me. Maybe I am just that retarted?
His comment didn’t seem hostile, but if you were talking outside of this thread and being an idiot, maybe it was deserved? And retaliating like that is “stooping down to his level” if he was indeed being a “prick”.
:evil: And this thread will get back on track in 5…4…3…2…1…
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Buy the damn book I’ve suggested. Hayne’s body repair. It covers all of this stuff with a lot better detail.
Don’t use your hand to sand, get a sanding block and sponge for curved areas. Sand in all directions to remove surface flaws.
Buy the friggin book. It’s $10 at AutoZone. It will save you money.
Autozone? wait a second i was there a month ago…
In Murtle Beach
That not a US only store?
I’ve seen that book anyways at Canadian Tire…
I bought mine at CT a while ago. Havn’t seen it recently there though.
On one of my drives from Oakville -> London I saw an AutoZone in london that had the book (Or maybe it was PartsSource? Not sure).
But yeah … I think AutoZone is trying to break into Canada.
That’d be interesting
Part Source Vs. AutoZone…
You see the new Part Source opening on speers Sven?
Yeap! So far it looks like they have elite tuner windows 
Yah i saw that LOL A delsol hahaahahah
Sven is right about using a block for the flat areas, and a sponge for the curved areas/contours. It’s a little more even than the surface of your hand, although things like that are starting to get into a costly investment, and I was considering since you’re not planning on prepping and painting the entire car that a) you probably don’t want to spend a lot of money on supplies that are supposed to be saving you money and b) the bodyshop is going to have to sand 70-80% of the car again anyways after they fill all the dents & chips and any rust, and they should have all the tools they need.
Sanding in all directions however is not always a good idea. I’ve seen this done with success, but this is by experienced bodymen. You’re much more likely to end up with a pitted, uneven surface with some fairly deep scratches using this method, unless you really know what you’re doing.
Note to platinum240sx: My post was edited. I don’t think the comment was aimed at you anyways, although I could be wrong. I appologize if it offended you, whether I typed it or not.