hi im new to this so please bear with me as i learn how this works
i purchased a 69 cougar coupe was avertised as body work completed and picture car was primer., when i went to see it the guy painted with Tremclad rust paint and an electric paint gun, There’s are runs all over the car.
my question is does anyone have any tips on the best way to remove the paint?
There are several ways to remove the paint, it depends if you are going to do it yourself or have it done.
If you have it done then it depends on what facility you have close to you, dip-in strip, soda blast, sand blast,plasta blast, but if you do it yourself, then you have two choices, sand it off or chemical strip. Somebody may have another choice. Oh Welcome to the forum .
I just went through this process, at least the hand stripping portion, taking the car down to bare metal.
Not sure how far you want to go with this, but do you trust the body work done underneath?
If you do go down to bare metal, don’t bother with chemical strippers available on the market nowadays, they do next to nothing, and just cause a mess. I tried them all, KleanStrip, Rustoleum, and a few other brands. Spray on, brush on…you name it, it barely takes off a layer at a time if anything.
Use stripping discs for larger panels
For tighter spots and grooves use the smaller ones
Wire wheel, and free hand 80 grit sandpaper for everything else.
This looks like it would work well for mass paint removal:
Dave,
Welcome to the forum. It really comes down to what your budget can handle. You`ll get more opinions then you can handle on many questions. Go with your gut. If you can do the work yourself take a propane torch, heat up the area and scrape it off. I have done my car with everything, from chemical stripper, to propane torch, to sanding with a 80 grit DA. I felt the propane torch took it off faster and less fumes, less toxic.
thanks
pat
I have had decent luck with a heat gun and razor blades. Some areas just the razor blade. Not sure about Tremclad? Good luck!
We stripped an entire 76 Caddy Coupe de Ville with razor blades. It took freaking forever, but it was best as far as the cleanest method that still preserved the bodywork underneath.
I’ve also stripped-down other cars using a DA sander and 80 grit discs. You just need to be careful not to spend too much time in one spot so as to heat up the metal or actually sand metal off.
That Eastwood SCT had some great reviews from the Vintage Mustang Forum guys in a recent thread.
Hello from western North Carolina. I am newbie on here just joined up. I was trying to find info to share on another forum for Mustangs. The topic was sandblasting body panels.
A little background on me first. I am 74 and still play with cars. I built my first car before graduating high school in 1965. It was a 1950 Ford two door sedan that my dad bought in 1952 and drove over 200,000 miles before he gave it to me.
I attended the local technical school and took machine shop and then tool & die. I served an apprenticeship in die making, plastic injection molds, zinc die castings and automatic assembly equipment.
I also did tooling designs when it was all pencil and paper and a little when Auto Cad came out. I moved into engineering and was a zinc die casting engineer and started a casting company for a local shop.
I went to a lawn equipment manufacturer and was tool engineering manager for about 5 years. We made 5,000 riding mowers a day, 20,000 walk behind mowers and about 1,000 garden tillers a day.
I then made a move to the automotive world and held several different jobs there, tooling engineer, tool room manager, tool engineering manager and then worked with customers at a product, process and tooling engineer.
We supplied parts to at least a dozen different Ford platforms, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Husqvarna, John Deere and many others.
We stamped body panels, did weld assemblies, spot welded, MIG welded and was originally part of Firestone but was bought by private owner.
I got fed up with the politics in big business and retired early at 62. I started getting job offers as soon as the word got out and I ended up taking an engineering managers job in Wuhu China working for a Chinese company that I had done tool work with in the past. That is a long story but the short of it is China is so far ahead of the U.S. we will never catch back up. They pay much better also. One year there and I came home and bought my home, debt free and build my 4,000 sq. ft. shop with two post lift and paint room. So now I play with my cars.
I won’t list them all but have 18 in various conditions from parts cars to show cars. I own the highest options first generation Mustang built, verified by Marti. I ordered it new in 1973 and it has 41 options from Ford. I checked everything on the list but the block heater and I somehow missed that. I put in the barn in 1982 with 12,000 miles. It was in the Mustang Owner’s Museum in Concord, N.C. for grand opening and 6 months. Gale Halderman and Marti both got to see it. Marti had to leave two options off of his report he had never had a car with that many options. It was inside display at the Ponies in the Smokies last year and part of inside display at Carlisle all Ford show last year.
So now to what brought me here.
I was searching for information to share with others about how the blasting of body panels warps the material. I did read through some of the info posted several years ago and looked like some members had issues.
I also have a good friend that has been doing high end restorations for 38 years now, has never advertised and has a waiting list. His restorations are between $85,000 to $250,000 and does the best job of anyone I have ever seen. He had one customer that wanted a 240 Z painted and he told the owner not to get it blasted. He didn’t listen and they destroyed a pretty decent body. Could not be hammered out there was warps as much as 1/2" looked like someone had jumped up and down on every panel on the car. I wish I had taken pictures but I did not.
He gets the plastic media or has them dipped stripped by Carolina Chem Strip in North Carolina. BTW I saw one comment on one forum that the dip strip does not work that it will bleed out of the weld seams. That is not true I can say for sure. I have a 1972 Q code Mustang vert, one of 330 built that was dip stripped over 10 years ago and just put in epoxy primer. It had to sit with tarp on it outside for about a year. Nothing has ever bled out of the seams. It is in paint room now on rotisserie but I have a bad disc in neck that has stopped me working on it. My friend is just finishing up a 1965 Grand Sport Buick that was dip striped by them and it sat for months without any primer waiting on body parts and did not rust. They phosphate the metal after it is stripped. Removes all rust, inside and out, all paint and all sealer and does not warp anything.
Lots say they can wet blast and not warp to keep the heat out. The heat is not the only cause for warping the metal. It is physics that cannot be stopped. The blast media is like little hammers and it expands the metal and makes it warp. You can tell a car that has been blasted the panels do not reflect straight lines they are wavy.
If you take a flat piece of sheet metal and paint it and then blast the paint off you can watch it curl up.
The issue with soda blast is being able to remove the residue after the blast. Another restoration shop here had done a soda blast and had not issue until they tried to put the color on and then it went crazy. Had to strip to metal again and start all over.
The plastic media does not remove the rust but if you get you a 275 gallon chemical container and go to cattle feed store and purchase liquid molasses and mix with 9 parts water you have a safe cheap rust removal process. It will not take paint off only rust. Will eat up aluminum or zinc so do not put in. Does not hurt chrome had done Magnum 500 wheels and bumpers and removes all rust. You have to clear coat chrome after to prevent rust again. Also you need to phosphate your body parts when they come out.The molasses costs about $22.00 for 5 gallons which makes you 50 gallons of rust remover that will not kill you. To start out you can use one of the Rubbermaid 50 gallon heavy duty garbage cans with snap on lid. Parts cannot have any oil or grease on them or will not work. You can do heads, engine blocks, cast iron exhaust any ferrous metal parts.
So if any of you have a horror story you can share for first hand experience I would like to hear about it.
I have 7 mustang convertibles, 2 1965, 2, 1973 and two 1972. I even have the removable hard tops for the 1965 convertibles. I found 7 of them over the years and bought 3 of them. They were sold by Ford but not made by Ford.
Have a great day,
David
Welcome! Quite a history there.
Welcome!
As information, you may not have missed the block heater. The engine immersion heater was normally only available in certain areas.