Advice and tips on prepping car for respray!!

[dtmwelburn]

Hi all unfortunately i dont own a seat anymore but out of all the vag forums i am a member of i have received the best advice here, so here i am, i currently own a b6 audi a4 tdi, which i am getting resprayed in Rallye green the colour skoda use on the new VRS fabia and octavia,

Bit of history on the car: its a previous cat c, rear end damage i believe even though there are no signs of it, just bad paintwork, its currently metallic grey but a lot of the paint is cracked on the rear quarters and bootlid, and any scratches scuffs etc on the bumpers doors, and some rust on inner doorsill.

I have spent roughly 3 hours on the O/S rear quarter so far and have smoothed out a large area by hand with a mix of 600/800/1000 wet and dry, im told doing it all by hand is better so you can stick to the natural curviture of panels, but its so time consuming and my hands are in bits lol, so im thinking of using a orbital sander or DA or random action sander, not sure which is best if any or what sort of pads to be using on said sander, this is my first project thats got to the point of actually painting the car, i have a painter ready to paint for between 3-500quid depending on quality of prep (outside and doorshuts)

So im just after hints/advice on what to use to get the job done relatively quickly but without damaging the quality of the prepping, i want the paint to be right...

All advice appreciated

 

[grahams81]

I have spoke to a guy who's painting mine and he said just getting the car stripped / windows / trim / door handles etc removed helps them out.

Out of interest where you getting the car painted ???? need mine doing but the guy i have lined up cost a bit more than what you've been quoted and he's really busy.

 

[Brettyboy]

Prep is 90% of a respray,get it wrong dosent matter how good a sprayer is it will look crap

 

[dtmwelburn]

Graham im using a bodyshop in stockton near Boyes, called Hicksons Motors, i used to deliver his paint when i delivered for unipart, but only thought of asking him last week, from what ive seen hes very good at what he does. I know another really good painter but he aint got a bodyshop he works as a smart repairer so hed have to paint it outside which i thought would affect the quality of the finish, hope u find someone graham i been watching your thread since i had my cupra and a project like that deserves a top notch paint job,

Im struggling figuring out how some of the trim is removed but im sure ill suss it, i just wanna know whether i should keep at it by hand or break out an electric sander to do the nastyer of the work before smoothing it all off with 1000 wet n dry?

And Brettyboy ive heard countless amounts of times how important the prep is to a good paintjob which is why im after hints and tips to get a perfect surface for paint before i book it in

Thanks for the comments guys....

 

[dtmwelburn]

Heres some pics of how the car is looking now: