What kind of tools would you recommend for sanding a car? I have a DA air sander but it doesnt seem to work very well. It digs into the paint rather than making a clean sanding surface. My air compressor isnt that great but if anyone has any suggestions on either electric ones or air ones let me know. Any links?

 

buy a hutchins DA


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buy a cheap air file, i have both cheap ones and expensive ones, snapon being the expensive one, and they work great and you can pretty much run them non stop with out draining your compressor. i have a couple high dollar compressors and they cant keep up with the da, it drains a lot of air.

 

I have done several cars over the years from a hobby perspective with very good results. To tell you the truth, I only have a DA and an electric random orbit sander that I have used on the cars. I also only use those to scuff existing paint for adhesion. For filler and finish sanding I just use long boards and hand sanding blocks. Maybe a cheese grater for knocking the gooey layer off the filler, but hand sanding after that. Those other items are nice to have I suppose, but I never felt the need to buy them considering I do this as a hobby. I work by getting the sheet metal as close as possible and then using just a tiny bit of filler that is then hand sanded. Works for me.

 

What grit of sandpaper are you using?

 

I have been using all the hand tools for awhile now and just looking to see what else is out there to make it easier. Depending on what needs to be sanded I usually go from 180-320/400 and sometimes 80 on the body filler

 

When I am stripping a car down for paint, I usually go to bare metal with my old cars. I use 80 grit on a DA for everything, and I would rather chisel the old filler off with a scraper or putty knife than sand all that dust onto the floor. Taking the original finish off with 180 or 320 would take FOREVER. Also the 80 grit leaves a nice surface for the primer to bite into.

Be careful with the DA and dont use it like a grinder, make sure the pad freewheels without turning the shaft. If it turns the shaft its not in sander mode and it will dig in like you described. Hold it at a shallow angle to the panel and you dont need to press down just let it work while you move it around. The paper discs last longer if you arent polishing the metal with them, only use them to remove the paint, when the metal starts to show move back a bit from it.

 

A good air powered d/a is hands down the best for removing and/or sanding paint.

As rmodel says Hutchins is the best but will set you back close to $200, I have four of these.... They are worth it if you have a good compressor.

My 7.5 HP will run 3 pretty good, with the 5 HP backup only starting every now and then, but many "consumer" compressors don't really cut the mustard when comparing "apples to apples" on the HP rating.

Anyway, since I only have a sh!tty little compressor at home, I bought a Milwaukee 5" D/A style orbital sander from Home depot for about $60 to do my cabinets, I was kind of impressed with the little sander.