This summer, one way or another, I'm going to get the Hawk looking better.

This Saturday, I'll be getting me a set of doors. After that, I want to do some sanding and painting.

Sooooo....

In the sanding department: I'm not doing the entire car as I don't plan on doing that special a paint job. Good enough and respectable are two words I expect to use often in this project (along with a few cases of Labbatt's). It's my first time and since I bought this car to play with, I want to play and not get hung up on a silly little thing like perfection. There are some areas I want to sand, maybe do some bondo/putty type work, then primer before painting. I got myself a nice little sander that should do the job, but what grit sandpaper should I use? I've heard about sanding with a lower grit first and working my way up, but why is this done; and do I need to do it on my "good enough" project?

the other thing I don't quite know what to do with is the black "belt" that goes around the car. Since I'm sure to be getting Cavy doors, the belt just won't look right all the way around and I want to remove it. How would I do that from the nose, and is there a good way other than brute strength and ripping to get it off the rest of the car? I'm not going to worry about the belt on the rear bumper at this time (remember the whole good enough thing) as I plan on eventually putting on the Z-24 bumper that I have.

Really, and in this part I'm not even joking in the slightest, I will be using Rustoleum for my paint.

Do you have paint flaking off at all? Or are you just needing to scuff it up to apply new paint? If you just need to scuff it up, you can use a scotch-brite pad from a paint store. If not, I'd hit up the car with no heavier than a 400 grit sandpaper.

Some from column A and some from column B...

Some is completely flaking off, some looks like there's some bubbling going on--looks like I could touch it and it will just crumble, and there is some small areas of rust, so I think sanding the rough areas while not doing any prep work on the rest is the way to go.

Should I just use 400 grit, or do I have to start lower and work up to 400? Why would someone have to work their way up the grit scale?