rls@ihuxf.UUCP (Richard Schieve) (07/02/84)
First of all I agree with your motivation for stripping the car to bare metal. The extra time it takes is well paid off when your new paint job isn't ruined by problems with surfaces underneath. Sand blasting turns out to be a problem for most cars. Most commercial sand blasting places turn you away. Their equipment is set up for the heavier gauges of sheet metal that is used on large trucks or other heavy machinery. When used on a car the metal warps as the sand actually stretches the metal. My neighbor had just a trunk lid done and wound up getting a new one! The smaller sand blasters that can be run off a home compressor (and I have a 5 horse) take forever! Chemical stripping is no fun either, but is my choice. Wear gloves and keep the garden hose handy, as the stuff attacks skin some what. Brush it on and wait, but not too long or it drys on with the paint, use a wire brush to work it in if removing lots of paint. Scrape the stripper and as much paint as is loose and apply more stripper if needed. When the paint is mostly off, wash the panel with soapy water to neutralize the remaining stripper. If you are not removing the panels that are being stripped, watch out for the stripper that leaks though cracks. This can take the paint off the back side, just asking for rust. Also stripper attacks plastic body fillers so if you don't want to rework a section of bondo, use a sander to remove the paint. To give an idea of the amount of stripper needed, it took about 5 gallons to do my 69 Camaro that had been painted twice. Its lots of work good luck, Rick Schieve