Options for new paint?

[bigdog]

Sand and paint can be viable depending on your objectives. It won't last as long nor look as good as a strip and paint. I did it to my Navion to provide an interim paint scheme and buy myself some time to get my RV-6 finished. I can't stand to be without a flyable airplane. I only expect a few years from mine. It looks far better than before but it's a 30 foot paint job done in stages, by me, in my hangar. It serves my purpose. If you have evidence of filliform corrosion under the paint you really need to strip it to fix it. If you do and haven't purchased you may want to pass. As mentioned, be very careful sanding or Scotchbrighting around the rivets. Preparation of the surface will control the quality and longevity of your paint job. It's harder to get everything clean when sanding so edges and rivets will start to flake earlier than when stripped.

[FlyingRon]

Also, you don't want to be attacking aluminum with just any sandpaper. As Greg alludes, scotchbrite is usually a good solution. You could be inducing corrosion with the "sand" residue left behind.

[vaflier]

Helped a friend strip and paint his cherokee. A year or 2 ago and it really was not that bad. To do. Came out looking great and I think he had about $4500 in it including materials and some hired help.

[s10sakota]

I forgot about the raised rivets! Yes it would be impossible to remove the paint around the rivets with out using a proper stripper. The good news is that it seems I have found a very nice cherokee that does not need repainting!