Thought painting my 65 ss was a good idea. I've done everything else, why not my own body work! the problem is I keep finding these tiny little needle holes that seem to come through the old paint! in some spots I have to go to the bare metal to get rid of them. they only come out when I sand through the top layer of paint, the top layer is very thin, what are these? Primer won't fill them in and spot putty won't hide them? There is thousands of them all over the car, the car has had some bad body work in the past I found a Mountain Dew can used as a patch in the fender, is there any thing I can do, other than sanding to bare metal? Any suggestions will be appreciated- Thanks- :confused:

I'm no autobody man, but if I were doing what you're doing and found what you found I'd be taking the car down to metal. You said you found a mountain dew can used for repairs, who knows what other short cuts were taken. Do it once and do it right. This way you'll know exactly what you've got and in all reality will save money in the long run. Just my .02. Good luck, Pete

its called fisheyes you got something on the car grease oil could be anything its like trying to mix water and oil your paint just wont mix.

bare metal? might as well just so I know whats under the paint for sure, if the needle holes are fisheyes what do I use to clean the bare metal so that this doesn't happen again? should I use a particular primer/sealer? Thanks for your replies guys! ;)

Tony, you have a long way to go here if you plan on stripping the car.

If you are going to strip it you are headed of for a very steep learning curve. This is a HUGE undertaking, and you will be taxed to the limit. I am not telling you this to scare you, but you have to be realistic or you will be overwhelmed.

First you will have to decide how you will strip it. If you have the room in a nice dry garage having the whole thing plastic media blasted would be a great way. If you don't have the time and space to attack it then one panel at a time at home is what I recommend. Strip one panel down completly. This one panel should be the straightest panel on the car so you won't get your butt kicked.

I would sand it off with a, 8" "hog" orbital sander. These are expensive tools (about $200.00) so you may choose not to get one. If that is the case use a DA with 80 grit. Test it out and see how easy it comes off. If it is not working well you may need to change to 40 grit. But you want the finest grit you can get away with. Use GOOD QUALITY paper and don't be afraid to use a LOT of it. Don't use the paper until it is warn out, it WILL HEAT THE METAL if it isn't actually CUTTING the paint.

You could use a chemical stripper as well. Much faster, much more toxic. You need to use a LOT of protection for your hands and face.

Think about this, test a little. Doing a search on stripping paint here on the forum will give you a wealth of info. You need to choose how you will strip it. As I said, your learning curve will be STEEP, take your time and start out with reading as much as you can, slowly. Let some of this stuff soak in. You don't want to jump in with both feet all at once.

One last thing, using any "spot putty" is not a good way to go. "Spot putty" is single componant and has no hardener, it is old school junk. Like I said, you will have a lot to learn to pull this off. But with taking you time and LEARNING one step at a time it will be pretty easy to pull off.

You could do the strip job panel by panel so you aren't overwhelmed. A good time saver when using chemical stripper is to apply a nice heavy coat of this stuff with a disposable foam paint applicator and cover completely with plastic masking film so the solvents don't evaporate-this allows the stripper to do the most it can often resulting in only having to apply the one coat. I've lifted 4 paintjobs from cars with one coat of stripper using this method. Make sure to water wash after removing the softened paint to nuetralize the remaining stripper on the panel, then follow up with a 120 or 180 grit DA sander and clean and strip disks where needed for clean metal with a nice texture for primer adhesion. Prime that panel and move on. The plastic masking film can also be used to protect the primed adjacent panels from stripper. It's a big job no doubt, but if you're not in a hurry and the car doesn't need much in the way of rust repair or bump work it will be time well spent for sure. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

The stripper I used would melt foam brushes in seconds. Same thing with any plastic it came into contact with. Come to think of it, even the chemical resistant gloves melted after prolonged exposure. Took me a solid year to complete the entire job to my satisfaction. I will never chemically strip a car again. Can't say I'd recommend it to anyone, as it was a major butt stab of a job!

Tim

If you don't enjoy your work it is pure misery for sure. I've stripped complete exteriors in one weekend after the trim removal was done. I worked in a Ford dealership during the early 90's when Ford was having a paint delamination problem requiring the strip and refinish of many trucks. I had it down to 3 working days including the trim removal and stripping process, then it went to the painters, when it came back from the paint booth it was reassembled in 4hrs and off to cleanup. Media blasting wasn't available in my area at that time.