suggestions to prep a car to paint

[motormike40]

Hello, In a few days im going to start prepping my car to have someone paint it ( save money), but this is my first car that I would be prepping. Are there any tricks or traps that may make the job look better and easier?
Thanks,
mike

[RandomTask]

A paint jobs quality is directly derived from the prep work going into it. The most basic thing to remember is that you want a CLEAN painting surface. Dirt and Oil on the surface cause bumps and fisheyes in the paint. To start off, you're going to want to sand down your current paint, get it scuffed up so the new paint has something to bond to. Take a 320 grit and go over the entire car to scuff the clear coat and take off any imbedded depris. You don't have to take it to metal, but get it nice and scuffed. Next you're going to want to hit it with at LEAST a 540 grit. Now this depends on how many base coats they're going to put on it, and you might want to find out, but you can also wet sand with a 1000 grit if desired. After you've sanded DO NOT GET ANY OIL OR DIRT on the car. In all honesty, you might want to cover the car, and HAVE IT TOWED, because driving will put oil on the car and all that sanding will have been worthless. You're also going to want to cover up ANYTHING that you don't want paint on. Take masking tape, and run it against the edges, on the larger sections you need to cover you can a plastic or newspaper.

If you absolutely positively MUST drive, then theres this stuff, called D900 or such, use that on your car. You do about a square foot or two at a time, then wipe it off with a clean dry cloth.

During this entire process, use clean latex cloves, and clean clothes that you dont mind ruining. (Don't use you're normal car repair clothes). Any oil will cause the paint to fisheye (basically the paint runs away from the oil and makes an oval/circle shape).

Hope this sets you in the right direction...

[mike@af]

Just my two cents. A lot of painters prefer that you dont do any prep work, that they do it all themselves. Because the prep stage, while similar, is different on every job. Plus if its not done correctly, they dont want to be held responsible.

So talk to the person painting it first.

[motormike40]

cool thanks alot