My question about paint work is in painting things like door frames and tail gate sides. The parts that are hard to get at for prep and sanding. How do you get good consistant results compai=red with areas that can be prepped more thougroully. Example, do you need to prime the inside oy the hood to get good paint results or just make shure it has been cleaned well? Thanks for any input.

 

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These areas are hard to prep. Especially in the newer compact cars.

Your major concerns are probably oil and silicone (in the jams). Over the years, these areas have been spray with a variety of compounds. Your paint is only as good as your base. If you attempt to spray over oil and grease, you'll have fisheyes and peeling.

Hoods
On hoods, I start with getting the chunks off. A putty knife is real helpful. Then I hit the underhood with spray-on foamy cleaner that is washed off with a hose. A pressure washer is also good but be careful in its use.

Then I do a hand washing. Dawn dishwashing soap, hot water, and a scrub brush work good. Follow with a wash down.

Then I degrease. I pay about $8.00/gallon for a generic degreaser. I buy it at my local auto paint store. The hood then gets scuffed with a red scotch pad.

Jams
Jams follow pretty much the same procedure although I skip the foamy cleaner.

I knock off the big chunks. Do a gross degreasing around hinges. Then a wash down followed by a final degreasing.

I also use a scotch brite pad for sanding jams. Some also use a compound designed to assist with the sanding. It is applied during the scotch brite phase. I don't know the name of it but it can be found at auto paint stores.