I want to prep my truck myself for new paint. I don't plan on this being a show job when it's done - just something that looks nice enough for me to drive and use when I want to. It has some rust, but not much. Mostly it's just really faded paint or areas where the paint has worn down to the metal but hasn't rusted since its been inside most of its life. I have a compressor and a DA Sander that should be up to the task so I have a few questions.
1. Do I need to get down to bare metal everywhere? I can, but I'm not sure if that's just for cases where there's rust.
2. What grits are best to use? I was thinking about starting with 80grit and then going to 180? Or do I need to do something in between that like 120?
3. Is there a way to keep what I've stripped from rusting while I work progressively over the whole truck? I know it's going to take a long while with the time I have and I would hate to start this and then end up having just a newly rusted mess when I was done. Is there something I can put on the area's I've done while I keep working on new areas?
Any help would be good - I've never done real painting before. I have painted the rear and front axles but it was with a brush. I'd kind of like to try actual painting someday.
