[3C3]

Finally have the rolling chassis for my 69 roadster done. Its only been 29 years .... so whats the rush eh? Now its body time, and no it aint going to take as long cause you only live so long right. Lookin for suggestions on the best way to strip away 41 years of paint, repairs, etc. I have a jig built door to door to
go on, so the stripping and prep is for the doors back. What say you ? Been looking at pressure blasters, sand? soda?, walnut shells?, chemical strippers?, I'm so confuuuused! Any help much appreciated.

 

[pyoryan]

I tried chemical stripper. It took the paint off ok, but it was messy and hard to deal with. I found a flat razor blade scraper, and I scraped off 8 layers of paint/primer with relative ease. Once you get an edge started it comes right off. Then I used 80 grit sanding discs on a DA sander to sand/smooth out the last two layers down.

 

[shipy59]

Yeah what he said:thumbsupnly make sure you sand good or use high fill primer,ask me how i know:lookinup:

 

[HardcoreABN]

i am a HUGE fan of media blasting...soon as i can afford it i am buying my own gear

 

[crowvet]

You should not use chemical strippers on a glass car. If it has had any repairs where the gel coat has been ground through, it can get into the fiberglass and find its way out later. Like after you have painted your car.:down:not cool

 

[6880 Mike]

...You should not use chemical strippers on a glass car...

Chemical strippers which are safe for fiberglass are okay. AutoSpray Strip is one. I used it and have had no paint problems in 15 years. The trick is to thoroughly clean and prep the bare body prior to primer/sealer.

...where the gel coat has been ground through...

There is no gelcoat on factory panels. What folks confuse for gelcoat is usually the stock, gray factory primer. There are exceptions, but most of the time, the factory primer is in good shape and does not necessarily need to be stripped.

:thumbsup:

 

[Cougar727]

I think the key here is to be VERY carefull when you get down to the fiberglass. My Dad stripped his with a chemical stripper and let the chems penetrate the old bondo. He also got quite a few little knicks with the razor blade in the car.

He's done plenty of metal cars but this was his first vette so he wanted to do the bondo stuff. I rebuilt the 3 bad fiberglass areas. When we sprayed the first coat of paint I immediatly stopped and we had to rework the bondo and the body where the chips and feather lines were.

Once that was done and the body reworked, we sprayed it again with primer sealer and repainted. This was a medium blue Base/Clear with a LOT of metalic in it and it turned out terrific! I pushed it out into the sunlight and it just POPPED!

Well... 2 days later everywhere there was old bondo the paint began rippling. I was heartbroken and told him he was going to have to take it to someone with a paint booth and heat to cook the stuff out of it. Talk about an expensive learning experience.

$600 in paint/materials.
6 months on and off working on it.
$5000 for the strip and repaint, the guy said it shoulda been 8k

Best of luck.

Cougar :bang