having respray, some questions!

[welly_59]

someone keyed my car down both sides so i am taking it in for a full respray. i'd like to do the prep work myself to save a bit of money. got some questions first though.

My car is silver metallic.

This is the process i think i need to go through, with questions!:
1. sand down the area with the scratches - do i need to go down to bare metal or just till the scratches are no more?
3. if i go down to the metal then etch primer other wise just normal primer
4. Sand down primer

How far around the scratches should i sand the paint down?

when spraying on the primer does it matter if i spray over are'a with paint still on?

Do i need to do any prep on the areas with no scratches?

hope you can help me to save a few quid!

Also where i can i get the decals from for after the spray?

[phild]

OK, my thoughts on this are as follows:
If the scratches are only through the top coat and dont go down to the metal then I would ahve thought that you could have taken it to a specialist (chips away perhaps?) who will repair the scratches a lot cheaper than a re-spray.
If you really do want to get it re-sprayed then a trip to the body shop who is going to do it and ask them what would be best option in their opinion.
Myself, I would flat off an area a few inches either side of the scratches with a fine wet and dry paper, mask it off and then spray a high build primer over the area, then flat off again using fine wet and dry. Repeat until the scratches are gone and you can't feel them when you run your hand over the top. Then remove the masking, go over the area with thinners to take off any silicone and feather the edges of the primer, re-mask up a little further away from the initial mask area and build up a few thin layers of top coat. Take off the masking and then after a week or so, (when the paint is hard) T-cut the area into the old paint work andf then polish it up.

[welly_59]

the key scratches are at least a metre long on each side of the car so the chip people said they are too big. i'll get pics up soon and you'll realise how bad they are!