started this a few days ago. I'm starting on my hood first to see how it goes (the paint was faded and cracking in some areas anyways).

sanding down took forever, I ended up switching to 150 grit then back to 220 then 400 before the first coat. This was dry sanding. It's a red car so I have a bunch of rags and clothes that are now a nice pink color. I ended up having to wet some rags just to pick up all the powder that was coming off. I really hope I haven't messed something up. Most of this process so far I have had the feeling of inexperience, ie wondering whether I should do one thing or another. then I shrug and try it one way, and rely on the fact that it's one hood and if I really need to I can replace the hood (it's a 97 honda civic, with a nasty water leak, so it's not worth a ton anyways).

A few questions:

- how many times can I use a rag before throwing it out or washing it? can/should I wash these pink rags or just buy a block of rags?

- how many times can I use a sheet of sandpaper? discard after each wet sanding or keep reusing?

- how should I handle edges and underside of the hood? so far I've been trying to go to about 5mm around the underside of the metal.

- the place where I live, the owners have this mastercraft sander: http://reviews.canadiantire.ca/9045/0547193P/reviews.htm

I wouldn't use it on the wet sanding, but for the initial preping it sure was tempting. Anyone use it? Would it be worth using on the next panel I do?

thanks for keeping this thread going, it's really useful, and I'm sure I will learn more about body work than I would have if there were no $50 paint job.