How to Sand Off Auto Paint

Painting a car or truck is all about proper preparation. To apply plastic body filler, you have to work on bare sheet metal, because otherwise it won't adhere. You can also get a better paint job if you strip the vehicle down to the bare metal. To do this, you don't need a sandblaster or chemical strippers, you can simply use a few pneumatic tools and some sandpaper to get the job done.

Instructions

1

Place the air respirator on your face. This will protect you from any paint dust that will come up in the process of sanding off the finish.

2

Apply the 80-grit sandpaper pad to the orbital sander, then connect the sander to the air compressor via the air hose.

3

Pull the trigger on the orbital sander and hold it to the painted surface that you want to strip. Work the sander in a circular pattern, sanding off the finish with the sandpaper. The 80-grit paper is fairly aggressive, so don't stay in one area too long and feel the panel frequently to make sure you're not heating up the panel too much. The 80-grit should take off the bulk of the paint.

4

Switch to the 120-grit sandpaper once most of the paint is gone. This will clean up the scratches left from the 80-grit, and get it closer to paint quality. You're finished once all the paint is gone and it has a uniform smooth appearance to it.

5

Switch to the 200-grit pad and repeat step 4. This will give you a paintable surface to work with, and all of the paint should be gone at this point.