new paint

can anyone tell me what type of sand paper and what grit to use to sand my olds delta 88 for paint.
thanks

 

What year, clear coat or not?? If the clear coat is bad, you will have to sand down to the color coat, better done with a D/A sander, but keep the grit fine, 320 or better to avoid deep sanding marks. Final sanding w/min 400 wet.

 

Ya the final wet sanding needs to be done with 400 grit but that is basically after all the other body prep is done; repairs,scratches,dents,etc - and these probabably require primer once done.

 

it is a 1983 and it does have clear coat. what is a da sander
thanks for the help

 

DA = dual action sander - used when you need to remove a fair amount of finish but not as aggresively as a disk sander. It's called a DA because you can either have it spin in even circles or a wobble type spin which cuts faster.

 

i don't own a da sander or a compressor so i was wondering if i have to use a da sander, could i use a random orbit sander or a Craftsman 6 in. Sander/Polisher it runs at 2 speeds 1400 & 1650 RPM would this work?
Thank all of you for helping me

 

Just what kind of work is needed to be done on your car to ready it for paint?
What condition is the body and paint in now?
What type of paint job do you hope to end up with? Just freshening it up?... or restoring good as or better than new?

 

nothing has been done yeat so i assume it needs to be sanded and primed. it is very stright no dents it has some rust around the windows that needs to be removed and little cracks like things on the hood, trunk lid and top i think from pine needles. i was hoping to get it as good as new but this is my first time painting a car i figure it will look better than now. and i have one ? i was going to use dupli-color paint shop Primer and Brilliant silver paint, how much paint would i need?
thank you

 

Since you intend to paint it yourself and I assume you don't really have any expereince you may need to practice some. Any areas that need to be sanded down to raw metal can be done without the use of air tools but you will need a compressor to power the paint gun. Paint guns use a lot of cfm so you will need a decent sized compressor although it is possible to work slower [giving the compressor time to catch up] using a smaller compressor [1hp 12 gal tank minimum] Although this will make it a little harder to get a nice fluid paint job.

You can use a 6" or 7" sander for the rough sanding but will need to finish with an orbital [or similiar] sander to ready it for paint/primer. Before applying any paint/primer make sure the surface is clean. This can be done using a tac rag or any lint free rag, dampened with thinner.

Hard to say how much primer you would need - depends on the work that is done. If you are changing colors or painting door jambs and around trunk and hood it will take the better part of a gallon of paint. You will also need a gallon of reducer and a pint of hardner. Most primers can be thinned with laquer thinner and both primer and paint can be cleaned up with laquer thinner - which is cheaper than the enamel reducer.