[Jayhawk500]

Ultimately, I'm going to have this body dipped due to the rust on the inside, hopefully this summer. My thought is, if I can strip as much of the paint as possible, I could possibly lessen the cost of the dipping. Less time in the tank. less contaminates in the acid, etc.

Now, I started this morning with a DA and 40 grit and have about 1 hour of sanding time on this roof. I went all the way down the A pillar to the door.
The dark spots is a small dent and surface rust spots.

From what I'm seeing there is about 9 layers of paint on this body, between the primers and actual color.
The last picture is with me sanding it with 320 to smooth out the layers for a better photo.

So my question is this,
Am I wasting my time in the hopes of a lesser stripping invoice or should I go ahead and continue to strip it?
If I continue to strip it, what can I use to speed this process up? 40 grit is too slow. A/C /chemical stripper is out of the question.

Thanks
Chris

 

[cheveslakr]

It's a daunting task with that many layers. The best way with multiple layers is a razor blade, followed by a nice 80 da. I typically use 40 grit on my locked out da, followed by 80 grit da if minimum layers.
Study the dipping process, it's helpful with your decision and call the company you're going to use. They dip for a prescribed period, then high pressure spray the paint away, then acid dip for rust treatment, then neutralize. I think you're wasting your efforts anyway, but I'd let them have the deciding vote.

 

[Jayhawk500]

Thanks for the reply. The process you stated for dipping is what they do. Just hoping to save some cash. But I'll call them back and see if it matters if its sanded or not.

 

[Alex_NY]

I heard (never tried it myself) people using easy off oven cleaner and a scraper to remove paint. May be worth a try as a can is not expensive. Be careful of breathing any chemical fumes

 

[Capt Casey]

I heard (never tried it myself) people using easy off oven cleaner and a scraper to remove paint. May be worth a try as a can is not expensive. Be careful of breathing any chemical fumes

yep it works it is Lye so is caustic and pretty much the same as a chemical strip but harsher as it is typically used on baked enamel appliances so it doesn't damage that but on steel you have to neutralize the chemical effect or risk etching the steel.
I'd ask the dipper...I know the feeling it's like you feel you are doing nothing and hoping to save some cash is always a primary thought...
Good adhesion on the paint though!

 

[LKN BCK]

GOOD SHARP 40 should take it down just fine.
Try taking 8 layers without going through to metal and your paper will last longer.
Then 80 grit after you get it down.
Sharp and change to new paper often and you should be able to get is off fairly easy.

 

[Raven1]

I heard (never tried it myself) people using easy off oven cleaner and a scraper to remove paint. May be worth a try as a can is not expensive. Be careful of breathing any chemical fumes

Wrong. I use Easy Off to remove hand lettering on catylized urethane and it does zero damage. All it does is remove the hand lettering. Been doing it for decades and so have dozens I know on the biz. To remove paint buy an IR 313 for fast removal, or put your DA on grind mode if you want to spend more time. I always try a heat gun and razor first.

 

[DrPepper]

You say you want to save a little money on the dip process by removing some of the paint yourself. Have you considered the cost of the materials you're using during your manual paint removal vs. what you think you'll save on the dipping process?? And what about the time you're spending on manually removing some paint?
IMO, you're better off letting the dippers do their thing. Use the time you would have spent sanding, on something that's really productive. JMO

 

[texas]

I used an Eastwood contour sct or whatever they call it on my Chevelle and recently on an old el Camino and it’ll eat through almost anything pretty dang quick. It got through 5 layers on mine and a quarter of an inch of bondo on the rear quarter panels. I did the entire car in about 10 hours with that thing

if you can get some of the old aircraft stripper it’ll do the job too but good luck finding the good stuff with methylene chloride. I was able to find a few gallons of the old stuff in New Mexico about 2 weeks before all this lockdown junk happened last year.

 

[Jayhawk500]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've opted to just let the strippers do it. The cost of the sand paper and my time are worth more to me than standing there trying to remove the paint by hand. Oh well. Live and learn. As of right now...The plan is to send it to the stripper sometime early this spring when the weather breaks. I dont have an enclosed trailer so I need about a week or two of nice weather.
I've got other little projects that need to be completed before it goes anyway. I want the body as close to being complete as possible, so I dont have to reopen the Ploy-primer once it's been shot.

 

[Jim Streib]

I had a bunch of things dipped locally to remove whatever down to the bare steel and I told the man that was doing the work to call me when he was pulling the parts out of the neutralizing tanks. I could then get the parts right after that and that any spots he might have missed to clean might still be wet to where I could then get in there with screwdriver's, ice picks, and whatever to get things even cleaner and give it a more thorough.rinse. .

Jim

 

[69SS454]

If you are worried about the cost of sand paper, you don't know what is in store for you after your car is in bare metal. Body work is hard, time consuming, but gratifying work. The cost of sand paper and removing paint is the cheapest and easiest part.

 

[Hotwire]

I was going to recommend the Eastwood SCT sanding drum as well, looks like Summit entered the arena with their own rebranded version of it.

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[Jayhawk500]

Thank you everyone for the input.