Best way to go

[novanutcase]

I have read alot on how to strip down the entire body and would like to know if anyone has had either bad or good experiences. I'm thinking of either Chemical Stripping or Bead Blasting.

[67RScamaroVette]

good experience soda blasting.. i dont like the little crystals that showed up everywhere, though...

[DeepBlue68]

You might want to check out this month's Hot Rod magazine. They're on the 2nd part of a 10 part series on paint and body work, and this month's article is about all the different ways to strip your car. I'm not really a big fan of Hot Rod, but so far, this paint and body series has been somewhat informative...not as much as I'd hoped though.

[novanutcase]

The problem I'm having is that chemical stripping and bead blasting seam to be the best choices but both have their drawbacks. I'm kind of leaning toward the chemical strip although I don't like the fact that the stripper also takes off the paint in the places that are inaccesible and willnow be raw metal. Also, you have the whole "acid leaching out" possibility. With bead blasting I have heard that it is really hard to get all the dust out of the nooks and crannies. Has anyone done etiher of these processes and have they had any bad experiences?

[ProdigyCustoms]

I have done them all except cemical submersion. You can save a ton of money stripping it yourself with aitcraft stripper and then a sander. Do one panel at a time, lay down some 4 mil plastic under the panel, $50 to $100 later, your done

[novanutcase]

Frank: When yo did bead blasting did you have a problem with dust being left in the nooks and crannies and, if so, did it affect your paint job? As far as aircraft stripper and a sander, you mean a DA sander right? Will the stripper take off any old bondo that was used before? I want to try and get everything to bare metal which is why I am leaning towards chemical strip although, again, I don't like the negative effects it could possibly produce(See Pro's and Con's)

[ProdigyCustoms]

Its dusty, but nothing good blowing wont handle, But as I said, we do a lot of aircraft stripping. Of coarse most times there is so little original car left, there is not much to strip.

[CAMAROBOY69]

If you get chemical stripper make sure you get some really really good stuff. We spent $25.00 on a gallon of stuff that didnt work worh a crap. Overall we ended up spending $50.00 and the chemical stripper just ddint work. So if you get it dont go cheap!! Get the air craft stuff for sure like Frank said.
Also after you set the stripper on there cover it with plastic to let it really melt off the paint. Otherwise it dries out faster.

[rockdogz]

I didn't do this myself, but after reading about the various methods I figured I would have my next car dipped. Don't they dip it in a rust preventitive last (zinc wash or whatever) so that non-accessible metal is protected? This way you would be completely sure that whatever junk in places you can't reach (rockers, etc) is totally gone. What you get back looks like a brand new shell (minus whatever damage was done to it, heh).

[novanutcase]

Rockdogz,

I'm in SoCal also so if this is true I would TOTALLY go that way. Any way you can get a little more info for me? I am going to try a few shops out here and ask them this exact question.