i have a 70 chevelle front end all removed and quarters are cut out, its the origial paint should i chemically strip the car down or just sand it down to bare metal with a recommended grit (i dont mind the mess) whats you opinion?
im also goin to sand down the under body its got that rubber coating and ill clean it up and top it with a fresh undercoating

thanks

You can chemically strip the car but there are some downsides to it. If the car has any body filler on it and you put stripper over it the filler will be destoryed and you will have to dig it all out and redo it. The kind of stripper i would recommend is "aircraft stripper" you can get it at places like autozone, etc. It strips the paint of fairly easily with a spatula type scrapper. It smells very bad and is not good for you so it needs to be done in a well ventilated area (known to cause cancer) You can also sand the car like i did with heavy paper first say 80ish for the big areas and strip the areas you are sure has no body filler. I sanded my whole car front to back but i used stripper on the doors. Good luck use safety.


Tom

What tools do you have to sand with?
You have a da sander, a compressor to feed it?
I can stripe a car MUCH faster with a da then with stripper, but I also have the tools.
A 6" da sander that has BOTH random and orbital motion will work great.
Put the sander on orbital mode or grinder mode, slap on some 180 grit. You could strip a fender and door in about 10 mins with that setup

http://www.chevelles.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/3/12082.html?

Thats on old post of what I did

Anyway if you dont have a da sander like this one you are wasting your time!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42249&item=4364061149&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

This one has the two different modes that I mentioned before.

A sander that has only ONE mode is way to slow for what you want to do. This one is NOT the one for the THIS job as its ONLY random motion.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42249&item=4362594745&rd=1

Originally posted by sevt_chevelle:
What tools do you have to sand with?
You have a da sander, a compressor to feed it?
I can stripe a car MUCH faster with a da then with stripper, but I also have the tools.
A 6" da sander that has BOTH random and orbital motion will work great.
Put the sander on orbital mode or grinder mode, slap on some 180 grit. You could strip a fender and door in about 10 mins with that setup

i have a 32 gallon air comp, i got most toys for it, but a sander is next on the list, what type of sander should i buy? does a DA sander have 2 modes? or do some DA's have single mode and dual modes?

some specs. on a good DA sander im looking at Dual-action sander provides 10,000 rpm
13 average standard cubic feet per minute requirement @ 90 psi
Sands body putty and filler in auto refinishing and fibreglass work
Built-in regulator for speed control

what do you think?

If you decide to strip it, you can go to Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a gallon or two of "Kleen-Strip" (I think thats right). It comes in a gallon can like paint thinner and you want the gold colored can which is for stripping paint from metal. About $8 a gallon I think. I stripped my '70 which had a layer of cheap gummy mist green over the original mist green. It would have taken many many hours of noisy sanding and gummed up sanding disks to get it off. In my case it was much easier to brush on the stripper, let sit for 15 minutes and scrape the layers of paint off with a stiff plastic scraper. Yes, time consuming, but actually very easy. After stripping I would wipe the area with a dry rag to get the remainder of the wet stripper from the surface, let the entire area dry overnight and then come back with 80 grit on the DA and make very quick work of cleaning/smoothing the surface for primer.
Also, I had several spots that had body filler and had no problems with this stripper affecting it at all. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I just stripped my '69 - 3 layers of paint. I have a DA and a decent compressor that I started with, but wound up getting a 6" electric sander from Sears - saw it on sale for 79.00. Used 60 grit to break through the Urethane that was on top, then swithed to 80 grit once I got into the Factory Laquer underneath. Dressed the bare metal with 80 grit on a DA to finish. Car is sitting in garage right now bare until I get time to work the few dents out of a couple of panels, then will probably go over it with DA and 120 for final dress just prior to applying epoxy.

I have done it both ways before, chemical and sanding, both are messy, take your choice.

Since you have original paint it will strip or sand quickly. I strip them myself. Lay cardboard on the ground to catch the drippings and scoop them up with a plastic dust pan and reapply to the sides where they won't sag off as easy as fresh stripper does. Get the door & trunk jams too. Then wash and scrub it good. Then hit it with the DA and 80 grit to get to bare steel. Wipe down with metal prep before priming.

Chemical stripping is a mess as mentioned above, catch the scrape off with newspaper on the ground - use a mask and gloves, this stuff is NASTY! With a previous project car, we used the "Kleen-Strip" product mentioned above but still had to use a sander to get off the "tough spots". The chemical remover will bite into any bondo/filler, but so may the sander... Keep the sander moving, don't get too much heat built up by staying on one place.

I'll be going down to the bare metal on my 67 SS and probably use a combination of the stripper and sander methods...

some of us may not have all the tools yet to spray/prime. What do i need to get? And since my car won't fit in my garage, how can i prime the whole car without getting the neighbors to complain? Thanks

how can i prime the whole car without getting the neighbors to complain? Thanks

do it at night, hehe. But in all seriousness you can rent a place to shoot the car without much hassle. If you are interested in spraying the car yourself the basics are:

1. Spray gun; i use an HVLP and i like it alot some may like the siphon kind im sure more will know than i do.
2. You need some type of compressor that can provide the CFM to spray. The gun should have the specifications on it. I suggest the bigger the compressor you can afford is the one to get. You can run alot of other air tools like DA's, chizles, etc.
3. You need some type of water collection system on the gun. Typically when you get a gun they have a little filter on the line below the gun that traps water (compression creates water which comes through the line) water in the paint will make for a real bad mess to have to fix.
4. some type of masking tape and paper. If you have any glass on the car and your not removing it you want to be sure to mask it off. same goes for chrome, wheels etc.

Here is a good source written by a fellow TC'er.

http://www.camaros.net/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=005647;p=0

Someone else will chime in if i missed any of the basics.
Good luck,
Tom :)

Don't forget your personal air system including protection from overspray on yourself. Use a certified air mask or breathing system, protect your skin and eyes from overspray.

A really good site for many questions on bodywork, painting and welding is http://www.autobody101.com.