I am in the process of stripping my chevelle usin Aircraft Stripper. Some of the original paint is pretty stuborn and I am havin to hit it with an orbital sander also. My question on this is if I end up sanding the entire car after the stripper to get it down to bare metal do I still need to wash it down and scrub with a scouring pad before doing any body work or primer application?

Also when i am sanding what grit should I be using? Do I run any risk of gouging the sheet metal if I am using 40 grit?

thanks

Greg

In my opinion, 40 grit is too aggressive of a sand paper for bare metal as it may leave deep scratches in the metal. The most I would start out with is 240 or 320 wet/dry sand paper.

On parts that I have used Aircraft Stripper, I usually wash down the parts with a soapy detergent or Simple Green to get any residue off of the part from the stripper. Next, I prime usually using a self etching primer and then put the color coat on top of that.

Hope that helps,

Brian

it definitely helps, my only problem is I am using the orbital sander to remove paint that didn't come up with the stripper and to remove body filler. So when I am sanding I am hitting paint but I am also hitting bare sheet metal where the stripper did a good job. Am I better off hitting it again with the stripper or just using a fine sand paper which could take weeks.

Also what do you use to remove body filler?

thanks

Get the stubborn stuff off with 80 grit on a DA sander.... wash this down with soap and water, rinse well, body filler, prime and paint.

Right on John,

80 grit is the way to go. I then follow with 150 to smooth out the scratches before etch priming and filler priming. I don't think I would put base color over etch primer without surface primer first.

Kevin