Projects What grit do i need?

So the weather is getting better and im getting the itch to work on the car. I wanna start by sanding down and smoothing out all the chipped paint. Out of all the searching i did i cant really find a direct answer. I just want the chipped areas to be smoothed out. Any advice would be great.

Heres a pic of its current stage.

 

Kinda depends on what you're going to do after you sand it. If you're just going to sand it and leave it, then it doesn't matter what grit you use, it'll rust and look pretty bad. If you're going to repaint the car, then you'll probably want to strip all the paint off all the panels that have chipping, so you can start over with properly applied primer and paint. If you're going to spray something over it to make it look a bit better, but not perfect, then use whatever is appropriate for what you'll be spraying over it--but you'll probably want to start with a relatively coarse grit like 150 and feather edge as much as you can, then work thru some finer grits, ending up with something like 400

 

I wanna paint over it. My idea is to sand the spots down and spray a primer over them to prevent anymore chipping.

 

Think of each chip (or flaked off area) as a valley. Then think of the part that has paint yet...that's a hill. By the time you sand the hills down to meet the valleys, you will have most likely stripped the panel down to bare metal.

Not saying it can't be done the way you have described, but not likely it will be something you would want to sign your name to. Stu

 

What Stu says....that's why I suggested stripping all the paint off the panels that have big chipped (actually peeling) areas.

 

it should be stripped but... try 80 grit on a d.a on the big deep chips then 180 to feather it out, lock down with an epoxy primer, then use a filler primer to try to fill the big valleys you made. long board sand the primer to flatten it out.

 

Ill definitely take that into consideration. The previous owner started to do what i want. The first pic is where its at and the second is what i want to do.

 

I do want to bring the car back to its original color but i don't have the finances to have the car stripped, primed and painted (Along with what goes on between those steps) so im doing what i can on a budget. I just don't have as much experience with paint as i would like.

 

Low-buck?

I would sand the whole car with 180 on a DA, then move to 320, then take it to Maaco for a $249 paint job.

 

Does maaco do metal flake and scallops?

 

You need some yellow, stone ground grits.......................

 

I thought he needed true grit.

 

Honestly, thats not a bad idea. Some Maacos are shoddy, others actually lay out the paint pretty good if you take a prepped car into them.

 

Thanks for all the advice. Putting me on the right track. Ive had builds before but my dad always did the paint and body work. So this is a first for me.

 

No, but you can get your basecoat laid down. That way you can drive it while you spray some metalflake and scallops