Need help sanding/refining body

[stratking]

Hey guys, I have a squire p-bass that I am messing around with. When I got it, it was painted white. The neck wound up breaking on it and I got another bass so this one has just been sitting in the garage. I have an old neck that I have already defretted and came out quite well. I would like to do this bass in natural. I have already stripped off the paint but it still has a hard clearcoat on it. I decided to try to take it all the way down to the bare wood and seal it myself but it's seeming to be a lot harder than I thought. I've been sanding and sanding for a while now and only barely is the bare wood coming through the clear coat. Is there any solution or chemical I can use to make this a lot easier or am I just missing something?

[bassist4christ]

What are you sanding it with?

[stratking]

Right now I'm just using 80 and 100 grit sandpaper and a lot of elbow grease.

[bassist4christ]

I dud two basses, and I used a SMALL palm sander it worked great for me. It didn't eat up the wood or anything. After I was done with that I used I think 200 grit and sand it smooth, and then you should be good.