Hi Everyone. My name is Camron ("Hi Camron"), and I'm addicted to reading "Paint job on a budget" on moparts.com!

I've been reading for over two weeks straight through from the beginning, each and every post. I was directed here from the Scirocco.org list, and here's my story:

Summer 2001, bought a beautiful shiny black (new paint) 1986.5 Scirocco 16V from Connecticut, shipped to Portland, OR. Babied the car, but early 2002 I was "sandwiched" when traffic stopped suddenly, and the driver behind me smashed my Scirocco into the car in front of me. The car was borderline totaled, but I decided to get the car fixed. The shop that did the work did an "adequate" job of getting the car back to normal, and looked pretty OK with BC/CC over new primer on 100% of the car for maybe 2+ years. The car then developed a funny spot on the hood, which a year later turned into peeling clearcoat. The paint and body shop was long gone, so I had to live with "ugly peeling hood", which had just gotten worse and spread to the rest of the car. The car looks SO BAD right now that it's an embarrassment to drive. As much as I loved my Scirocco, there was no way I was going to dump thousands in new paint for a totaled/rebuilt car.

Now things have changed! I have decided to try the Brightside paint, gloss Black, as there are at least two marine stores in my area, and finding the paint was easy.

MY QUESTIONS:
I do realize that it is necessary to remove ALL CLEARCOAT from the basecoat - peeling or not... what is the ideal method? Dry sand? Wet sand? Power sand? Grits?

Is it realistic to expect that I would be able to remove the CC without sanding through the BC to primer? Will Brightside apply and bond to this BC if properly prepped, or will I need to re-primer first?

OR is it necessary to also completely remove this basecoat before repriming and then painting?

Since the car had been in the bodyshop just a few years ago, there is very little in the way of bodywork needed... just a small door ding or two, maybe some light stone damage in the factory bodykit, and a couple spots that were "rust fixes" where the bondo swelled over time under the paint.

Thanks everyone, I'm ready to get to work!