13 replies to this topic

[WhaleOilBeefHooked]

Hi Guys & Gals, Have found a decent painter for my pride N joy, but prior to him spraying I must remove all the red paint from her.. I asked him what to do & was told a decent panel beaters sanding block and wet/dry in 320 gritt would do the job, which I now have.. I've been at it for a good 2 days & to say it's both slow & hard work is an understatement.. Esp in my situation as have lower back problems that gives me hell after a couple of hours hand sanding.. The car was resprayed in 82, when the dodgy sprayer used an orbital sander (( evident by swirl marks that I'm now revealing )) to rough up the original paint in order to respray with the red acrylic that's been on it ever since.. Some spots after rubbing have now gone back to bare metal so I got some cheap spray metal primer to avoid surface rust etc.. I don't really want to spend the estimated $1500 to have it soda balsted or such and was watching a t.v. show where they used liquid paint stripper and just scraped the paint off.. So my question is what sort of other methods of paint removal is there ?? ie. liquid paint stripper, flapper wheel or one of those panel beaters palm sanders that also require buying the velcro types of paper to suit it & a compressor.. I assume it's air powered so that when wet it don't give the opperator a nasty buzzing feeling or such.. Just wanting the cheapest & quickest/less amount of physical effort to remove the top coat of paint, Am told that it don't need nor do I really want to take the whole car back to bare metal, as the paintwork isn't that bad, just crows footed in a few dodgy bog areas and it's about time for a complete new coat of paint to have her sparkling again.. I have spent the last few hours sifting through the 42+ pages of paint & panel and can't seem to find what I'm looking for.. Any Help will be greatly appreciated..

[71xu1]

I find paint stripper works best stay about 20mm away from the edges and seams if it creaps around into the seams you will have a whole lot of problems. Do the usual neutralise etc then finish of with an eccentric sander 80 grit on the edges to remove the paint left then over the whole lot with 120 grit. This is the way I do it but it does vary between job to job sometimes I will finish of with 180 grit. Eg if theres bog don't waste your paint stripper and time the metal underneath will already be scratched badly from a sander so I just use the 3M 8 inch stick on strip discs the backing pad seems to pull some of the heat away from the panel and gives a nice finish I use this on a normal buff/sander set on buff speed.
I don't understand the 320 wet and dry which I would assume you would be using wet all that water on bare steel is no good. Hope this helps.
Cheers Dave

[WhaleOilBeefHooked]

Many thanks guys for your speedy replies.. doing a bit of google searching I found a couple of auto / acrylic paint strippers that are both water soluable (( afterall don't wanna kill the MRS lawn or such )) 1 is a product called POR 15 Paint Stripper and about $60 odd bucks for 4 litres which should be enough to do the entire car with, whilst other is Motsenbockers Lift Off # 5 Paint Remover. Cost not sure but will look into these before looking at the other brands as most are fairly caustic like Camstrip, Soygel, Septone, Ezystrip & 3M paint stripper, all are recommended for the auto paint removal industry.. Yes will be painted in acrylic again and will also be salamanca red as what's on it a.t.m. Yes I am using the wet N dry 320 grit with water (( hose trigger nozzle in 1 hand & sanding block in the other )) I started at the right rear quarter and to remove the red paint in some patches saw me go right through to bare metal in others, so at end of each day sanding I wiped over with a clean rag and ligthly sprayed the primer over it so no surface rust would occur.. Not sure what you mean Dave by " do the usual neutralise etc. " so as Pauline Hanson says " PLEASE EXPLAIN "

[WhaleOilBeefHooked]

Oh ok I get it now, and even more so if I use the water soluable stripper.. Glad wrap over the area being stripped sounds like I need to know more, would it work if I wrapped myself in thu stuff whilst doing thu stripping ??

[WhaleOilBeefHooked]

Thanks for all your comments & recommendations, Don't suppose anybody has used the POR 15 stripper as that's what I'm leaning towards... supposed to be more gooder & user friendly So please do tell what brand you've used & what results achieved... I will more than likelly go right back to bare metal as LH SLR 3300 suggested, cause I do plan to grow even older with this car as have owned it for almost half my life & thankfully I've had it in a shed for half it's life...

[WhaleOilBeefHooked]

I found those grinder discs that look like a sponge that has been dipped in a hard glue like stuff worked well on the flatter pannels. Stripped the paint fairly quick. I ended up getting both doors, nose cone, hinges, gaurds and bonnet dipped. Think it was around $700 odd dollars. Saved some of the pain!
I don't think there is an easy way to do it. It's a long prick of a job.
Cheers Dan.

Thanks again GTR & Dan for your imput, I have seen the discs you're talkin bout & will investigate further. I have given up on the liquid paint stripper idea as too damn messy, dangerous & ussually ends up where you least want it.. I am still at it with hand sanding plus have a range of wire wheels attached to drill for the hard to get spots (( which works very well, almost too well when I don't pay full attention )). I will get there with a lotta hard & for me back breaking work, my right arm will end up twice the size as left But will be worth all my efforts in the end.. Many thanks again 2 all that have given me their ideas & Thanks to this fab forum for giving me the want to keep on going..

[wot179]

Be careful with the stripper discs and also the flapperwheels.

Stripper discs are great but you have to keep them moving so you dont heat up the sheetmetal and distort it.

Flapper wheels and any heavy abrasive sanding disc will almost definitely make more work for you as every grinding mark you leave has to be filled with primer or bog and has to be blocked flat.

I reckon you should persevere with the paint stripper.

Just use a stripper disc to clean up the stubborn stuff when you have finished and the sanding disc for the areas that are going to be bogged up as the coarse marks left by the sanding disc will assist with the bog sticking to the panel.

[76lxhatch]

my right arm will end up twice the size as left

99, 100... change hands...