full car paint removal

B

bomccorkle

I have a 69 notch back mustang that I am going to hopefully begin stripping and painting next week. The car somewhere along the line had some spray some aerosol gray primer over it and the original paint that I can see appears to be peeling as well. The car has prob been sitting ten years before I had bought it. I am fairly certain that on the original steel I need to go back down to bare metal and my replacement panels are all covered in electrostat so I believe they'd be best just scuffed with 80 I'd assume before epoxy. I guess my question is this: in my reading thru here I have read that guys use the razorblade method which of course I will give a shot, but having sanded one car down to steel the d/a way I am in no hurry to try that again. I had also read of guys using a 36 grit roloc to cut thru the paint and I was wondering if anyone had tried maybe an angle grinder with a flap disc on it? I'm open to any suggestions as I'm on a bit of a time crunch on the car. Thanks for any help.

Bo
 
I usually D/A sand them with 80 grit with the sander in the locked position.. It is time consuming but as with all of this stuff.. if it were easy everybody would be doing it.
 
No doubt . I was wondering if maybe wire wheeling it then 80 grit sanding would work out. Guess I will see next week. Most has come of fairly easily so hopefully the trend will continue
 
I use 3m clean and strip discs on a small angle grinder (mainly because I haven't purchased them for a large grinder). They work very, very well. A little spendy but worth it. I haven't used them for a whole car, but on panels they work very quickly so I'd imagine they'd be great.
 
i have an 8" stick-it disc pad that goes on my buffer. on that i use anywhere from 36grit to 80grit psa discs. you can strip a car down in no time with one then get the tight areas with a da. once the body is all stripped i will do the irregular surfaces like door jambs and firewalls with a blaster.
 
Cool beans. The buffer idea sounds like it'd be super speedy. And I have myself a little portable blaster for the jambs. And I do have a couple of the clean n strip discs but they seem aweful pricey but again I haven't gotten to using them they may be worth their weight in gold.
 
The Clean N Strip Discs are not as good for stripping large areas as they are great for dressing welds, especially in pinch welds where they won't see filler. I like the brown ones, because while the purple "Imperial" wheels last longer, they are harder and do not conform as well to irregular surfaces.
 
A buddy of mine uses the buffer set up like jim said,, he loves it.. But it seems when we strip a car together he really doesn't get any more done than what i'm getting done with a D/A.. I say try them both and see what you like.
 
Is 80 grit as course as I should go with a d/a?? And I believe the clean and strip discs I have are black if that makes any difference. I have to dress a couple more welds before I get rolling with the stripping. Hopefully by the ends of the week...
 
Would it be a bad idea to use a propane torch to burn the paint off of door jambs?

I recently picked up a 3m roloc bristle disk, and it works great. Fast, but also wears out fast. $8 each or $24 for a 4 pack.
 
MX442;30454 said:
Would it be a bad idea to use a propane torch to burn the paint off of door jambs?

You can heat it enough to be brushed out with a wire brush, but burning it all the way out? Might be a recipe for warpage, even in a tight contour like a jamb.
 
Yea, Bo. Something like the hood or doors or roof; any large flat areas, do not take heat very well. Be careful.
A DA is the best way to go apart from plastic media blast. Be very careful with flap wheels. Fast material removal is the goal.
 
As an update I got some 36 grit green corps discs at Napa. They go on the angle grinder (7 inch) and they make super quick work of the large areas. I tried them on my buffer but it doesn't spin fast enough to give a desent looking finish for what its worth. Been just 2 inch roloc ing everywhere else.
 
it is but what a mess. i hate that stuff and i find it slower and more expensive than any other method. only thing i ever use it for is if i have to blast something small that has tons of coat of hard paint on it. i will use it to soften it all so it blasts easier.
 
I seem to remember it working really well on old repaints, probably because they were not catalyzed. Perhaps the modern products are not as strong, though. Either way, it's a method that we've pretty much abandoned as well. Just a nearly ineffective mess that will not remove filler or poly primer.
 
Bought a paint stripping disc at lowe's to try. Made short work of the paint on a section of the cowl just under the passengers windshield. Tried a spot on the roof. Don't think it would work as well on the roof. I ran it for a little bit then felt for heat. Didn't feel any warmer than the metal would be on a Texas summer day. I knocked a few large dents out of the roof yesterday as well. I feel like there will be more than a few days work on getting all the little dents and wave out of the top of the roof. This old truck has been well loved.

I will say that the strip disc cut the paint that was slathered on quickly, then took much longer to get the original paint off. But I like the fact that it did not appear to remove any metal and kept it relatively cool. Of course, I didn't stay in one spot too long. Looks to leave about an 80 grit finish.
 
Just keep in mind that there is a difference between the whole roof being heated by a hot summer day and a stripping disc heating an area of the roof at a time. It has to do with the surrounding metal being much cooler.
 
chevman;35771 said:
Just keep in mind that there is a difference between the whole roof being heated by a hot summer day and a stripping disc heating an area of the roof at a time. It has to do with the surrounding metal being much cooler.

Good point. These days, its warm in my shop. And when I start removing paint, it will be outside. the 1 foot square put a cloud in the air. Trying to keep the lead paint factor to a minimum exposure. So there may not be much temperature difference. That being said, the strip disc worked well for the small area. I think it would not be productive to use it for the large areas like the roof and back of cab or door skins.
 
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