So im about 2 months into prepping my rx7 (first experience with prepping a car...) anyways im wondering if I should sand the whole band of rubber off that is found very low on the side of the car... Its about a 5-6 inch band of rubber, in some places it has rusted underneath and im just curious if I should sand the whole thing down... I figured the paint would not stick as well if it was just sprayed on top of rubber...

 

I would say yes. After going threw all of you other trouble you don't want that to bite you after you shot the car.

 

If there are any signs of rust, remove it. If you have an air grinder, 3M makes a paint stipper on a wheel that works great for taking that coating off. They look like a scotch pad on a wheel are 7-8 bucks a piece, and a rusty brown color. The rpm limit for these discs is 4500, so turn the air pressure down. You can also chuck the in a drill.

The coating is a chip guard. You can pick it up at most any autobody store, and it is paintable.

Walmart has them in the tool section, some auto part stores carry them.

 

I would seriously consider how deep into the project you want to go.
Unless you don't like the coating, i would sand it over and leave it.
I'm in a huge mess right now with a car I took down to bare metal, I really wish I hadn't.

 

What, you mean something like this? and yes that is ALL bare metal.

 

i imagine your neighbors loooooove you trochoid. haha

 

why do you regret taking it down to bare metal???

 

yea seriously, unless the current paint job is in such shambles that you have heavy and light spots that can be noticed a mile away or you have more than 8 layers of paint, then taking it to bare metal is un-neccessary. just sand it all smooth and repaint. as robert told me recently, gotta be careful not to get rid of the etching on there, helps the paint stick. but, good luck with the bare metal project. we just did it to my friends 240 here and god it was insane. still looks the same as the other cars we painted that we just scuffed up. bah, oh well. HAVE FUN, it'll be worth it in the end.

 

see my car has rust spots that I keep finding and in order to eliminate them i needed to sand the car to bare metal... So i hope i dont have problems when it comes down to painting it...

 

That's the whole point. Those little pinholes of rust are many times bigger underneath the paint. If you don't get those all out, the rust comes back. When I had my box van done in '93, the rust started showing up 6 weeks later. Man I was pissed. Since then I do my own work.

This isn't the first vehicle I've gone to this extent with. It is a tremendous amount of work, but to me it will be worth it in the long run. The car is getting a widebody kit, so I had to take a good deal of it down to the bare metal to bond the glass on.

I plan on keeping this car for a very long time and I hate doing things a second time because they weren't done right in the first place. I spent nearly 3 days scrapeing the underbody, now that is a pita. I've gotten a bit too '****' about detailing everything.

I should be topcoating this weekend, but the funny part is, with all the detail, it's getting a flat black finish.

Go figure.

 

It' s not the neighbors that I have a problem with. The city is another subject.