[Will]

I am determined to finally learn how to paint a car. I'm going to paint it black, too, so I'd better do it right! Or at least be willing to do it over until it's right.

The thing is, I'm poor these days so my labor isn't worth much, therefore I'll be stripping the car by hand rather than taking it in to be blasted (which I'd much rather do!). The plan is to strip and prime one panel at a time so as not to bite off more than I can chew nor have the car down for too long at any one time.

So my question is, what tool(s) and technique will work best here? The car has a light coating of some cheap black paint over the original yellow. Looks like some heathens scuffed the original paint with 200 grit paper (obvious sanding scratches everywhere) then shot the black over it. At least they did the doorjambs and inside the trunk area so it doesn't look too horrible. The black is chipping off in places revealing the yellow underneath. Do I need to strip all the way to bare metal, or just down to the factory primer? In either case, what specific tool(s) will work best?

I know for leveling the primer and body filler on the doors I need the longest board I can find, but most other surfaces on the car aren't flat ('73 'bird) so how the heck do you keep from getting low spots and such on all those curved contours?


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'72 Formula 400
12.77 @ 108 / 234/244 cam / Q-jet / 3840# / 3.23s / street tires (not DRs)
'73 Firebird 400/4-speed