Body paint stripping

[jddevel]

How have others stripped their cars of paint ready for respray? The car has been in dry store for many years but has suffered the ravages of time with panels showing "surface rust". The metal work is in my opinion sound and should hopefully not require any major repair. I`ve watched "The French Platting Company" summary of his renovation where although having a sand blaster stripped the bodywork using paint stripper and rust treatment. I`ve read of using soda, crushed walnut and other products. Trying to decide what success a novice would have buying a "blaster" and doing the work myself. If done professionally using sand from what I`ve read I`ve only about a 4 hour window to get a epoxy primer on before the clean metal could start deteriorating. Pratcical problems whereas stripping myself does mean I feel I can get that protective coating on in time. One panel at a time.

[Franz Tenbrock]

Hello
take this here
Reinigungsscheiben CBS Scheibe 125mm Nylon LILA
search with google and you will find it,
very fast
don t take the metal only the paint,
works perfect
done my MG YA with it
4 of them fot the car, so for a TA 2 or 3 or less
my sandblasting factory don t want to do it, they said it is to aggresiv
cheap and fast, the front wing in less then one hour i would think

[stephen stierman]

I have found media blasting to be a mess done at a residence, with sand everywhere. I have stripped any number of cars with "aircraft stripper" hand tools and a wire wheel on an angle grinder in the drive way. This does require some safety garb and plenty of fresh air and is rather hands on but actually works pretty well. The chemicals must be thoroughly rinsed to remove residue and dried. You may experience some minor flash rusting with any bare metal left that way depending upon climate but it is easily removed with fine abrasives on a disc. Obviously don't let it sit for two years as some procrastinators do prior to priming. I find a 4 hour window to be nonsense unless you live by the seashore.

[Mark Strang]

Stripping using liquids took a turn for the worse last year in the US when they outlawed the MEK additive in most strippers. The new stuff just doesn't work well. Maybe you can still find some where you live. Good luck and if you can find it get lots. I have a small media blaster about 2x2x3 feet using aluminum oxide and it is great for the smaller bits. I job out my chassis and some other parts to be done with their media. I usually purchase a small pot blaster and use Black Beauty media. It's a PITA to use but does a nice job on the tubs and hood parts. When I'm done with it I just sell it and the result is that it basically only costs me a little depreciation and the media which in this case is not expensive. After blasting I wash it with a product called Metal Wash by Eastwood. it puts a coating on the metal which eliminates the flash rust and sometimes it'll keeps the rust away for a year or more if I don't get around to putting on an epoxy primer. You can apply primer over it after a light prep sanding. Never had a problem. Also, make sure you use epoxy primer. Non-epoxy primer breathes and will allow rust to develop under the primer and you won't know until a year or so later when you see pitting under your originally nice paint job.. If you do your own painting just put on a heavy coat of primer and let it sit for as long as you want. It doesn't have to be pretty because you'll block sand most of it off anyway. If you have any major filler work ,you'll want to do that with bare metal prior to primer. After primer and block sanding you can use polyester glazing compound to get the piece perfect. Most folks shy away from painting but the prep work is fun and not hard, just takes a lot of time but the results save thousands in vendor costs and result in a tremendous sense of satisfaction. Most primer can be applied outside if the neighbors don't mind since bugs etc will be sanded off. Make your garage into a paint booth with plastic and venting and you are all set.

[frenchblatter]

Be prepared for a long job. I started on 7th July on this blog: http://www.lotus7news.co.uk/MG-TC-JUL.html

Expected to take me a week to get all the panels down to bare metal but took 7 weeks.

[jddevel]

Wow Norman. So there`s a target.

[jddevel]

OK so started testing using electrolysis to de-rust panels and paint removal. With a section of panel that will not be used (decided on a new tub) placed in a bucket of water/caustic soda solution and using a DC iarc welder set at it`s lowest amperage took around 20 minutes to leave a "sooty" black deposit easily and quickly removed with a wire brush. Think some areas may take a little longer. Anyway today I bought a bigger 2nd hand fibreglass tank hopefully big enough to deal with larger panels. Think that if the bigger tank operates as well as the bucket then a couple of days concentrated effort will see the job done. That`s provide the welder can stand the pace. FINALLY THERE ARE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS THAT MUST BE TAKEN IF YOU TRY THIS