Working on the original skins, removing paint

The original paint job I did on my skins, like most of my painting efforts, did't fair too well. A few areas had some drip lines, plus my cat walked in front of a fan I had running, blasting it with cat hair.

See how hexxed I am with paint?

The one bad thing about sanding off the old paint is its a lot of work. I probably should have left them mounted on the frame...but I didn't want dust all over the frame. I'm sure had I planned ahead, I could've come up with some way of covering everything up. But this gave me more flexibility.

I started out with a 3M 90 grit sanding block. As you can see from this picture, I got a lot of the paint out. The recessed areas I just won't be able to get into.


While taking a break, I recalled having bought some mouse sander paper that was on sale a few months ago. I found a few pieces of 120 grit and went at it. At this point, I realized having the skins off was a huge plus. I could push from behind the skins, applying pressure where the sander wasn't quite making contact (flat sander, rounded skins...go figure).

Here's the progress with the mouse sander...

I stopped there since I do not have great lighting in my garage. I had a 100 watt bulb in there but since I was a sucker to save the world, one light bulb at a time, the energy-saver/twisty thing only puts out 60 watts. Tomorrow, my efforts to drain the world's resources resumes...the 100 watter returns!

As you can see, there are some areas that will be tricky to sand out. Areas like the pocket vent, coin returns and some of the doors will probably require some gentle Dremeling. I have a trillion bits to chose from, having picked up Dremel variety packs anytime there's been a sale.

The weather has remained rainy, so all painting is on hold. Once I have the skins done tomorrow, its time to wet sand the painted pieces.