My brother in law has offered to paint my escort however he reckons as I'm going to keep it until death bare metal is the way to go. He has asked me to prep the shell by stripping back all paint, no problems, paint stripper and it's just falling off. Once paint stripped can I use my angre grinder with very fine sanding discs to clear up metal prior to applying primer? Never prepped or painted before so advice is much appreciated.

im not a panel beater / spray painiter, but I would not be using an angle grinder, they spinn too fast and will really gouge the panels. you will have to use an orbital sander, either air or electric to strip the rest of the paint off, no rougher than 180 grit
someone else may know more than me!
 
cheers Ted
 
 
 
 

Use
http://solutions.3m.com/w...W4RV5GC0beRJ5GMFSMV0gl
 
to clean the paint off and get a nice surface.  No sticky greasy finger print on bare metal.  Maybe some rust converter/phos acid to clean the surface rust that you cannot see followed by a quick coat of etch (not sure how much of this your bloke will do for you).

if your paint stripper gets you to a bare metal surface hand rub with a flat sanding block with 600 wet and dry. Wipe off with damp cloth, blow clean with air compressor nozzle if you have one and use prepsol or similar wax/grease remover for a final clean and make sure you keep your hands off it.  You should get etch primer on to it as soon as possible.  If you are only doing small patches at a time spray packs of etch are readily available.  If you are doing the whole car in one hit have your painter lined up to do the etch as soon as the prep is done.  A good etch will slowly go hard over time and will keep out moisture so no surface rust will form.  I used a high build etch as I knew doing my huge amount of body repair was going to take some time and it was quite hard when it came time to rub down and prime.  Its a bit thicker and uses more but worked for me.  I live in the far tropics of NQ so moisture is a problem for me, If your climate is drier ordinary etch should easily do the trick.  Hope this gives you a bit of a hint.
 
Cheers,
 
Len

the product that MK1_oz has mentioned is incredible. I used a different brand which I got from bunnings. It strips paint and bog so easily and cleans the metal but dosent seem to remove metal like an abrasive sanding disk might