Please help with Body Prep / Engine Bay

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Mopardude18

Mopardude18

Mopardude18
Joined
Mar 19, 2009
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Moore, OK
I have a really nice no rust California 1974 Dart Swinger. I have the drive train pulled and I am rebuilding the front and rear suspensions. I would like to save some money and do some of the body prep for paint myself. My biggest issue is that I know nothing about body work.

My question is where do I start? Can I clean up and sand the original paint down to a point or do I need to go to bare metal for a quality job? What type of primers and in what order. At what point do you start with filler to smooth small imperfections?

Any advice or help would be great.

Thanks!!!!
 
If it is factory paint, or if it is good quality paint, there's no need to take it down to metal since there is no rust. Otherwise you're spending a whole lot more time getting the paint off, correcting sand scratches, and spending $$ for a larger quantity of primer.
If it is crappy paint, you probably should play it safe and take it down to the metal if you want a nice job and plan on keeping the car for a while. Do one panel at a time.
If you want to do minor repairs, sand the repair area down to metal, a light spread of filler, and block it down even with the surrounding surface.
 
My car early on.... You'll be surprised how fast surface rust shows up, that's why you do one panel at a time!

Barracuda 008 (2).jpg
 
I just took the second crappy paint job off the original factory paint. Easy pressure with an electric palm sander, 100 grit.
 
I am doing the same process... I have done the drivers side and trunk area all by hand sanding... I had to go all the way to metal due to the 4 layers of paint on top of the original paint... but I was wondering what is the safest way to do around the front end and engine compartment (just outside of the car, the engine bay can wait a little while) and outside air vents without removing the engine. I don't want the /6 to choke and I don't want to choke on paint particles and fumes either.
 
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