Prep for rock guard (clear stuff on rockers of 80's cars)

[67King]

88 Porsche 844. White (I'm going to have another question about that later). I bought the car as a project - one of the prior owners let his kid "paint" the car. Well, I think my 4 year old twins could do better. I don't know how much prep went into it, it was peeling in some places, etc. He didn't mask much - stickers were painted over, black parts of lights were painted over, black door handles were painted over. Just a really, really BAD job. Oh, and of course, it was a very dark blue.

Regardless, I have the blue off, and am hoping to lay some DP, then K36 this weekend. I know that a lot of cars from the 80's had this clear, rubbery stuff sprayed on them on the rockers. I'm not sure what it is called, but it seems to be there to prevent chips from rocks, etc. I've seen it applied on a NASCAR edition Monte Carlo (mid/late 80's with the sloped glass) that was undergoing a full restoration once. It was applied before the paint, and I'm told that they are all that way. The lack of a crisp edge seems to reinforce that.

Okay, so I was able to get most of the blue off by using a little bit of stipper, just enough to let it flash, then wire brushing it off, followed by a lot of elbow grease and lacquer thinner (stripper only got through the clear, and left most of teh color there). The guy I bought the car from did some body panels the same way, and it worked well (the OEM paint has shown no signs of distress 1.5 years since he did that).

So, what I really need to know is how do I prep the paint that is over that rock guard? It's pebbly texture precludes normal sanding techniques. Is there a trick to this, or is this something people have to either strip off entirely, or risk feeling, or what?

Any and all help appreciated.

[recoatlift]

we'd just d/a the rockers & re-shoot using a 3m schutz loaded up with stone guard [sp] gun or aerosol stone guard....experiment with spraying distance to change the texture of the stone guard. we usually used clear stone guard, let it set up & went to color. i'm sure others will give ya other options to help ya out more. keep the faith!!

[67King]

we'd just d/a the rockers & re-shoot using a 3m schutz loaded up with stone guard [sp] gun or aerosol stone guard....experiment with spraying distance to change the texture of the stone guard. we usually used clear stone guard, let it set up & went to color.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't clear in my question, though. The factory stoneguard is fine. I'm not trying to re-apply stoneguard. What I'm trying to do is paint over it. I'm wondering how to properly prep it, since it can't really be sanded like the rest of the car because of the texture. I'm going to have this problem two times. Once, before I epoxy-prime the car, and second, when I lay the color (I'm going to give the K36 a few weeks to cure before I do any sanding). Is there a trick to prepping rough surfaces, as far as sanding/scuffing them?

[Len]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't clear in my question, though. The factory stoneguard is fine. I'm not trying to re-apply stoneguard. What I'm trying to do is paint over it. I'm wondering how to properly prep it, since it can't really be sanded like the rest of the car because of the texture. I'm going to have this problem two times. Once, before I epoxy-prime the car, and second, when I lay the color (I'm going to give the K36 a few weeks to cure before I do any sanding). Is there a trick to prepping rough surfaces, as far as sanding/scuffing them?

If it's factory stone guard just hit it with a gray scuff pad before painting. This should get into the low areas of the texture. If the stone guard was reapplied and is more like sandpaper I would remove it and apply the material that looks more like the factory stuff. The best stone guard material I've found is the Sikkens' OTO Bodycoat but you need their shutz gun to apply it.

[recoatlift]

geez, len is right on the money in using a scuff pad. i forgot on the easy jobs, we'd just scuff the texture with a gray 3m scuff pad with scuffing gel or shake some ajax or comet on a wet scuff pad to make sure we got into the dimpled or textured areas for adhesion of topcoats. good luck!!!

[67King]

Cool, thanks guys!