Sanding the hull primer was a multi-step process that consumed the better part of several days, three thorough sandings, and which ended up removing much of the primer coat.  It helped to think of the primer as a sprayable fairing filler; generally, one removes as much fairing compound as possible while leaving behind a fair surface.  For the hull, a smooth, fair surface was paramount.

I began with a thorough sanding with 120 grit to remove the orange peel left behind from spraying and to smooth the surface.   This was fairly laborious work that took  quite a few hours spread over two days' time.  When I had completed the first sanding, I decided to mist coat the hull with some black spray lacquer; sanding off the lacquer would highlight any low areas and allow me to address them as needed.  Sanding took several hours to complete, but helped in the overall fairness of the hull.

With the major sanding complete, I next had to fill any pinholes, voids, and low areas in the hull.  There were numerous pinholes and voids left over from the fairing compound application; I had intentionally left some of these areas alone (rather than trying to fill them with more and more fairing compound) because I wanted to see how much the high-build primer would fill, and then deal only with those areas that needed it.  I used some epoxy fairing compound (QuikFair) to fill the voids and pinholes; there were large numbers on both sides.

When the compound had cured, I sanded the hull a third time, again with 120 grit.  By the end, much of the high build primer had been removed, but the surface was smooth and fair and ready for finishing primer a bit later in the process.

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