paint gurus

[Lance]

Recommend me an orbital sander for body sanding and prep work. Something quality but not overkill. I know very little so educate me.

[84z31]

i have the SKILL brand, i've been using without any problems. my mom bought it at walmart for my christmas present last year. i have sanded the whole car with it. its still alive. i would have been happy if it just made it through the car. i even used it on fiberglass sanding. no prob.

[roastin300]

screw orbital, get the long rectangular one that hooks up to an ait compressor and goes back and forth, wet sand your body work, it works amazing!

[Lance]

roastin300 wrote: screw orbital, get the long rectangular one that hooks up to an ait compressor and goes back and forth, wet sand your body work, it works amazing!

yeah? what are those called?

[OR-Zman]

[quote]Lance wrote:

screw orbital, get the long rectangular one that hooks up to an ait compressor and goes back and forth, wet sand your body work, it works amazing!
yeah? what are those called?

You will need a high pressure and large volume compressor/tank to run most of the worthwhile air tools. Example- I have a pneumatic Dual Action sander that needs 110+lbs and lots of air volume to actually use. So in order to use it I have to go out to my fathers shop because he has a monster compressor.

I have an electric orbital Skill sander that works pretty well. Taking an entire car down to bare metal will be a hell of a lot of work but it will probably do it if you buy enough of the sanding pads. It works great on smaller scale jobs.

For a larger job- ie: taking an entire car to metal for a full paint job you will need to either invest or rent a major compressor and air tools or use an electrical angle grinder with sandpaper type flat paddle wheels to get the majority of the paint off then hit it with the orbital unit. Be careful with the angle grinder idea though. its easy to take metal off along the way. :shock:

[Lance]

at my dad's house I have a fairly big unit about 130psi. Not sure the other specs, I'll have to look this weekend

[OR-Zman]

Lance wrote: at my dad's house I have a fairly big unit about 130psi. Not sure the other specs, I'll have to look this weekend

That is good news on the PSI if you want to use pneumatic tools. Now its just a matter of tank volume and compressor size to keep them going as you work.

Roughly I would say that a 3hp motor running the compressor should keep up pretty well. You may end up dealing with some recovery time but that can be good as long as its not too long or too frequent. :wink:

btw- the Ingersoll Rand dual action sander I bought locally was about $60. They work great for general sanding. The reciprocating type roastin mentions are also nice, especially for shaping and fine sanding. I have one but got it second hand so I'm not sure how much they would be new.

[mark86t]

I must just be a glut for work but I wet/hand sand with a rubber block/pad. You gotta wet sand or you will go through way too much sandpaper. If you are going to take it to bare metal then use paint stripper on large panels that don't have seals or trim on them like the hood & fenders. Faster and easier. Don't get lazy and use rough grit sandpaper to make it go faster or you will have nasty/deep scratches to fill. Preparation is the key. I've painted enough cars to preach that.

Painted my Z & my buddy's CRX most recently.