how long to prep for painting?

[Stanley Rockafella]

I am considering prepping my car for painting and body work and want to know what I'm getting into.

I would need to rent a garage to do the stripping and storage of all the stuff I remove. I'm not into grinding or prepping the actual car, and any rust repairs I plan on getting the shop to do.

I've done a fair share of wrenching, but should I get help from someone who has auto body experience? If there are two of us, how long should it take to prep the exterior and remove the carpet and seats for any floor board rust repairs? Also plan on removing the glass too

I'm figuring a weekend should suffice? I plan on leaving the engine and powertrain in, so I can just get the car transported over to the shop for the work to begin

thanks in advance :D

[Tom.]

I think it just depends on how proficient you are. It's not too difficult to remove the trim/glass/interior, but it can be time consuming if you're trying not to break things.

If I remember right, I stripped my car alone in one day. That included everything, all the trim, rub strips, seals, glass, doors, hood, fenders, bumpers, wind shield sprayers, gas door, antenna, everything.

The most time consuming, in my opinion, is the actual sanding/prepping of the body (which if I read right, you're not doing?)

Anyway, my answer is that it depends. Labeling screws/brackets/clips can take time, and making sure you stay organized does too.

[oliver.r]

i stripped the m3 inside/out and panel removal in about 12-15 hours

[Mab1957]

Yes, what he ^^ said. It depends.

I put many many hours into my cars (hundreds). It is all about the preparation, sanding, blocking, sanding, priming, sanding .... :D

Are you stripping, have rust to repair, new panels, removing all the trim or taping (protection of adjacent pieces), have good tools/abrasives/chemicals etc. etc.?

[Stanley Rockafella]

Thanks for the replies

Nope, I ain't touching any of the rust, or doing any sanding etc. that's what I'm paying the shop to do.

The reason why I want to do the stripping, is because I want to ensure that the damage to the pieces are kept to a minimal, and that once the shop is done, that the work was done right, before I start re-assembly.

[AndrewBird]

I can strip a car to a bare chassis in a weekend, so a weekend to remove stuff for trim should be easy.

[phenryiv1]

I just prepped my car for paint. I have about 30 hours in disassembly, sanding, light rust repair, primer, sanding, primer, sanding, bondo, sanding, POR-15/sanding/primer/sanding, parts prep, etc. I still have to pay the body shop for about 16-20 hours of work that was beyond what I could do at home.

Sanding/disassembly/prep starts here in my build thread and goes to the last page.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=316880&page=7

Ignore the posts about parts not related to the paint work and you still probably have about 3 solid pages of pictures and info.

Ended here on Tuesday:

[DIIRTY-30]

Stripping the car, trim grommets, windows included took overall took about 12-15 hours.

Prepping, sanding, body work took about a good 80 hours.

Shooting took about 6 hours.

Cutting and Buffings run 5 hours total.

Have yet to reassemble everything so I will update it once I do. Overall its a lot of man hours especially doing a lot of the work solo.