HELP w/ TRACK FAIRINGS Paint Prep

[Mina]

Long story short, I stripped the bodywork that came with my bike and sent it for paint, almost two months later and nothing has been done. I took the bodywork home and decided to prep it myself and send it elsewhere for paint.

Here's the trick, the fairings are Armour Bodies (if it makes a difference) and they have been spray painted yellow.
Absolutely hate it...

I had a small piece of 120 grit sand paper and decided to "test" how hard it is to get the spray paint off.
I can see it being very time consuming, but it's something to do when I have some spare time and I don't need this done until next season.

Keep in mind, I have never done anything like this before so I'm learning as I go and any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I tried to sand a small area in the front fender and this is how it turned out:

So a couple of questions to get me started:

What grit sand paper do I need to complete this from A - Z?
I've read that wet sanding is somewhat mandatory for a clean finish, but the blue layer felt pretty smooth to me, thoughts?
At which layer do I stop sanding? Do I need to get all the way to the bare fiberglass?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get deeper into it but this is it for now...
Thanks in advance for any insight/help!

 

[Brian P]

You do not want to expose layer 5 (fiberglass / polyester resin) and you therefore do not want to remove layer 4 (polyester gel-coat), and layer 3 is the original primer coating that Armour Bodies supplies with their bodywork so I wouldn't want to remove that, either.

I think all you really need to do is scuff it all up and then apply a high build epoxy primer/sealer to the whole thing. Doesn't matter what colour or surface is underneath this type of primer, it will even it all out. Sand any surface imperfections, re-prime if necessary, then top coat and clear coat.

 

[Mina]

Thanks Brian, any idea on what grit sand paper I need to start out with?
Can you recommend a good quality primer?

Any other tips guys?

P.S. Feel free to move the thread to the "Technical" section if this isn't the appropriate place to ask, thanks!

 

[kneedragger88]

320 then heavy layer of primer. 400 then 800.
3-4 coats colour then 3-4 coats clear. If you have time and energy wet sand with 2000 between clears.

I use Nason (Duponts ecomony brand) high build primer, you can get more expensive ones but this has served me well.

 

[crankcall]

#1 before you do anything else, wipe the parts all down with solvent ie; precleano or some slow reducer . There will be wax, grease, pidgeon poo and finger grease all over the parts and sanding before cleaning grinds the contaminents into the surface, you get fisheyes and poor adhesion.
#2 Do what kneedragger says, I spray the primer on in light coats. If buddy had painted those parts before with rattle can crap you risk the new primer solvents reacting sand making the surface wrinkle. More coats is easy and takes less time than fixing a booboo.