As Skippy said, the most important part of a paint job is the prep.

With the newer coatings, I am not sure stripping to bare metal is a good idea. Sometimes, you have to. In general, I's just sand to remove the clear coat, if any, and to provide some "tooth" for the color to stick.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags