Actually, I didn't. Both sides were sanded and primed where I filled in the brackets for the Yamaha logo. I just roughed up the remaining area and primed it. I usually have a problem with cans as I tend to put too much at a time on and get runs. This time I just put on a couple light coats within a half hour period or so, let it set overnight and went again. Took about a week but I wasn't in any hurry. I was going to go with a real dark green, almost a black, but I saw the orange high temp paint, supposed to be somewhat oil and gas resistant, so I went with that. Should be a real hit around Halloween.