sanding ready for painting

[dro]

Am starting to sand back the hand me down FE, (by hand). Have been reading on here you can use orbital sanders. Is this the same  sort of sander you would get from Bunnings or would you need to get a speacially designed one from a spray paint supplier. As you can probably tell I havnt done anything like this before so any advice would be good. ( No snikkering in the background you blokes)

[jasonr70002]

G'day mate an orbital from bunnings will work just fine and depending on your budget will depend on the quality ie makita or gmc etc. Other good fast ways to remove paint are rapid strip discs on a grinder which can be bought there too and they are much faster than an orbital an will be less likely to give you the shits for taking a long time. Also paint stripper is a good way as well and finish off with a rapid strip disc after scraping off the paint and washing stripper residue of but this is a fairly messy way to do it. I have a sander\polisher and use large rapid strip discs but the machines are a bit pricey. So I guess for speedy removal and less tiring work an angle grinder with rapid strip discs will save you time. Hope this helps mate.
Cheers Jason 

[Mc Bean]

Hi Dro

where you located,

Andy

[GMB-58FC]

HAHA you will regret doing it by hand after 5 minutes that's for sure.  Orbital sanders are great but like the saying goes you get what you pay for.

IMO your better off buying a "cheap" 5" grinder over an orbital sander.  There are plenty of good DIY and tutorials that covers the basics for bodywork so have a search on google.

The best piece of advice I can give you is make sure you wear your protective equipment and dont get carried away eg: if you start on the  frh guard finish that before moving to another area.

Oh and make sure you take plenty of pics along the way ;)

[dro]

Will look at those strip discs tomorrow, thanks for all the advice.

Mc Bean, I am located in Darwin,

Another thing( Sorry ) The chrome strip that goes around the front and rear door arches, is there an easy way to get this off without stuffing it.  Don't want to wreck to much if I can help it.

[mcl1959]

This is tricky to remove for a novice. I use a chisel with a flat face rather than a point and gently work along tapping the strip upwards from the channel. You may need a helper once you get over half way.

Ken

[dro]

Thanks Ken, got that trim off without to much trouble. 

Pretty glad I didn't become a spray painter because this bodywork stuff is no good.(then again if I was a spray painter I'd know what to do)

Still going anyway, put some more photos up soon.