I have a 94 accord with a shitty paint job. Almost no clear coat left. I want to take the paint down to something that will be even and be ready for new paint. It currently does not have the stock paint. What GRIT of sand paper should I be using for this project?? Thank you for any help and feel free to Personal Message me!

 

If the clear has failed, the paint should be removed down to the primer level. But, if you don't feel like stripping, I would go 220 on a DA. It depends, what are you putting over it? Different primers have different grits they like to adhere to the best.

 

I am doing any and all the work necessary!! It is getting built for a tuner magazine so Im trying to save money on takin off as much paint as I can possibly can!! My buddy who does body work is helping also!! I plan to do it entirely by hand. Due to the fact that the paint is so shitty it should just crumble off.

Would you suggest 220 by hand also??

 

If you are going to take off as much paint as possible and paint it correctly, I recommend stripping off the paint. I use a chemical stripper for this purpose, a gallon runs about 20 dollars and will save you days of sanding.
Here's a quick list:
1- Strip using chemical stripper.
2- Wipe down with ammonia and then W&G remover to neutralize.
3- Scuff the entire car with 80 grit paper pretty well. Don't remove material, just scuff.
4- Shoot epoxy primer.
5- Shoot primer surfacer.
6- Block sand primer surfacer, starting with 180 grit. Work through grits, finishing with 400 grit. A dry guide coat can be extremely helpful during this stage to find low spots. Body filler can be laid on top of surfacer but should have surfacer shot on top of it when leveled.
7- Once body is perfect, W&G remover again, let dry, tack rag then spray base coat.
8- Spray clear coat.
9- Wait recommended amount of time, buff then reassemble.

Hand sanding an entire car is a gigantic pain in the butt. I really need to know what you plan on using to paint the car with after you're done sanding.

 

I already started by hand today using 220. Its gonna take awhile but Im willing to spend the time! I have new front and rear bumpers, fenders and probably gonna get CF hood so I dont need to sand any of those parts! Also have new mirrors.

 

What are you going to paint the car with? 220 would be okay if you plan on shooting primer surfacer over the scuffed paint but it is not okay if you plan on shooting epoxy or basecoat.

 

Im letting the paint shop worry about taking it down any further if need be. Im just tryin to save them a few hours in labor which in turn saves me a few hundred!!

 

May not save you anything. Proper procedure is to strip entire car when the paint is in bad condition/clearcoat has failed/someone else tried to prep. You need to talk to the paint shop before doing anything to see if they even want you to do anything at all. My guess is they will not. Talk to them before wasting more time.

 

Yea I actually took my car into them and said it would be great if I could do as much prep work as possible and then they will go over everything and make sure its proper before paint.

 

What are they planning on doing? I'm guessing they are not planning on going from bare metal up...

If they are going to spray surfacer and that's it, I recommend doing what I suggested. Epoxy will stick to keyed paint if it is mixed as a sealer as well. 220 should be fine. Go with a good quality paper (3m gold) as in the end, the time you save and the number of sheets you use will make it worth the extra few dollars. Make sure to do all sanding with a hard block to prevent wave. Your goal is to remove all of the clear coat, or at least key it until it is no longer shiny. Check your work with a squeegee and spray bottle. Good luck.

 

I have no clear coat on my car. Its just like a flat baby blue color.. Would you suggest I still do what you mentioned previously??

 

How was it painted that color? Is it single stage urethane or a "hardware store" enamel? If the latter, it needs to be stripped. When you paint real car paint over an oil based enamel (like hardware store spraypaint), the oil paint will crinkle and lift. If it is a true urethane, I would sand until paint is perfectly flat and evenly keyed.

 

If the old paint is not lifting or cracked, I don't think you have to strip it down to bare metal, as the adhesion is still good. Just scuff surface. Depending on quality of the primer surfacer you use, a primer surfacer is pretty much just very thick primer, that can be used to fill tiny scratches and final leveling of the surface.

 

This is (kindof) true of a urethane or activated enamel, not true of anything oilbased.

 

^^ Ya I meant over the urethane base. I wouldnt paint over the store spray paint lol.

 

post pics....if its the way i think it is get it down to the ORIGNAL primer/sealer then just 320 to scuff it and your are good to go

 

Well I bought the car years ago with a matte black paint job which I believe was done by spray paint. I got it painted at Earl Scheib few years back and they did a HORRIBLE job so now im re-doing it.. I assume I need to take all the spray paint matte black off in order to make it look quality, correct??

 

OK Ill take some really good up close pics of it and show you how sh***y of a previous paint job it was. Then you can give me your opinion!!

 

Well...it depends.

Should you? Definitely.
Will it make the new paint job last much longer and look much better? Yes

But could you PROBABLY paint over the earl shieb paint? Yeah.

I believe shieb uses an activated AE or UE so new urethane paint would likely not lift the stuff they put on. Notice: I said LIKELY.

If it were me, and I cared about the car, I would strip the thing. Chemical stripper is powerful stuff and will take 1/100th of the time as sanding it all off.

 

OK I am going to try the chemical stripping. Are there any negatives to using that stuff??

 

you'll never get it all back out, and anywhere it's left will bubble in the future, it's fine for things like fenders off of the car, where it can be rinsed, but anything with seams, you are looking at the lowest level of hell in the future. There is supposed to be a 3M stripper that chemically breaks down to prevent this issue, but I can't remember the name of it, and I'll bet it costs a few pennies too. if you are down to original Honda paint, and it looks solid, sand it flat and it will be fine. The issues Honda had weren't with the paint, but with the clear, this was due to new EPA regulations, I had a 98, and I can picture in my head what your paint looked like. I could see a black or a green one coming a mile away, they all had the same "racing" stripes in the clear

 

Its not stock honda paint... I listed everything in the forum previously to this!

 

Ill post the pics sometime soon, so everyone can see what the paint Im trying to take off looks like up close!!

 

Sounds pretty messy..

 

Ever tried to clean up half an inch of sanding dust? That's messy too.