I have some small rust spots that are starting to bubble so I am planning on sand blasting them clean but the rest of the car has decent paint, Should I just scuff it with 320 on a D/A and feather the chips or should I take the whole car to bare metal, and if so should I use the sand blaster or the D/A to get to bare metal? Thanks Again Zach

Jake, you are asking the "what is the meaning of life"? sort of question. smile.gif That is one of the longest debated topics.
Here is how I see it.
A. What end result do you want?
B. How much time do you have?
C. How much money do you have?

A. Is this "just" a driver? Is it a car with little value that you just want to make nicer? Or is it something you want super nice and are willing to pay for it?

B. Striping the car will add MANY, MANY (if I could make the next "many" bolder or larger I would smile.gif ) more hours. Expect maybe 40 more hours MINIMUM. That means a number of FULL weekends to the home hobbyest. AND a need of a place to do this job.

C. Expect to double the cost of the job if you strip. Urethane primers, sand paper and so on are not cheap. Or if you have it done, that costs too.

Only YOU can answer the A, B, C questions.

With all these questions in mind you go on to the next set of questions.

1. How much paint is on the car? You don't want a big film thickness, it will chip easy. One paint job over the original is usually about all that is safe. But it still depends on "What" that one paint job consists of.
2. How well is the paint holding on or what is it's general condition? I don't care if it is only one paint job, if it is failing, it "should" come off (again, refer to your "a,b,c" answers).

First off, DON'T EVEN THINK OF SANDBLASTING you will DISTROY your car. I mean DISTROY it. You could sand it off, this creates a lot of heat and can cause trouble on the large flat areas, but I have done it with success many times. Having it plastic media blasted the best way, hands down. About $400.00 around here.

Just to clarify you do not "scuff" an old paint job to apply a new one, you "sand" it. "Scuffing" is a term that more defines the procedure of "lightly sanding". "Sanding" is more an orange peel leveling, chip feathering, kind of procedure. While "scuffing" would be leaving the orange peel and chips if there were any. Or for that matter, in some cases you could feather the chips out and then "scuff" the rest. You would "scuff" a panel for blending if you were spot painting. Or you could "scuff" the door jambs for a new paint job. But as a rule you would be "sanding" the old paint to apply a new paint job.

MartinSR great insight once again. smile.gif

sandblasting = Destroy not distroy. ;)

Forgot to hit spell check. graemlins/clonk.gif

MARTINSR thanks for the advice, I think I will sand the existing paint and sand out the small rust in the rear wheel well Possibly weld in a patch as the "rust never sleeps" article says to do with 36 on the D/a followed by 80 grit and DP40. However when I took the viynl top off the roof is very rusted. I will have to weld at least one patch in a small hole that failed the screwdriver test. But D/a all that rust off the roof with 36grit? Can't I just blast it with low pressure pointing the gun at a angle ie.. not dirrectly at the roof? I plan on filling the rust pits with USC allmetal and then follow with a self etch like DP40, or if it passes the screwdriver poking should I just self etch and then fill with rage gold? Thanks Again, It sure is nice to be researching before and not after I do the work for once! Zach

On an older episode of dream car garage they were useing a method called "soda blasting" to take a panel down to bare metal.It kinda looks like baking powder.(it might be called media blasting too,I'm not sure)The guy went on to say that it does'nt damage the sheet metal at all,it's very light, but just agressive enough to remove paints and any rust.

I just had my car soda blasted. There is a difference in soda and media blasting, what they don't tell you about soda is after it's blasted they powerwash it (not happy with that) still trying to get the hardened soda out of my rockers.
also the soda does not remove any rust.

You also have to watch any use of acid products after the soda blasting. The soda has a positive PH factor and it gets caught in the pores of the metal. You use an etch primer or something and the soda neutralizes it!!