I am currently restoring a 69 Coupe. I am putting on new used fenders on the front. Next winter I want to start preping the car for a new paint job. When I start stripping it down do I take it all the way down to bare metal and then prime it?

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You can but you dont necessarily have to. The benefit to going to bare metal is that you will find any decay that hasnt made itself known. You have to be careful though that you dont get areas of flash rusting. When that large surface of freshly scratched up bare metal is exposed to humidity, it can rust in a hurry. Not rot type rust, but it still needs to be addressed prior to paint. By not removing all the paint you use the old paint as a primer coat. Of course you want to really feather out any chips with the DA sander. The risk you want is that any flaws in the previous paint, where it is not readily adhered may affect your new coat. Of course if the old paint is pretty old and hasnt flaked yet, it probably wont.

I'm kinda in the same boat right now. I will leave most of the paint on, going to bare metal only where i need to.

Darrin

 

Thanks Darrin