sanding??

[muthstryker]

i was just wondering what you guys think of sanding the car rather then getting it media blasted?? i dont plan on sanding the car by hand im going to get it media blasted but evey one is telling me to sand it, and it would be better to do it by hand.. but isnt it better to get it media blasted then go straight to the body shop and get the body work done and primerd?

[rocketman]

i media blast,then give it a lit da sanding before primer.

[CAMAROBOY69]

To hell with sanding an entire car down. We did it with Heathers 67 Mustang just to let her get "hands on" with the car and I will never do a car like that again. Wayyyy too much work. It was fun for us to work together on it but it was not the best way at all to strip the paint off of a car. If you have the extra money just have someone blast it for you. We knew ours would be sitting for a long time so we epoxy primered the car once it was all bare metal.

[astroracer]

How is the current paint? Original? Been painted once or twice? If it is original you can't do much better for a good base to shoot over. Get yourself a 3M Hookit softpad...
http://products3.3m.com/catalog/us/e...er/output_html
and hit the original paint with 6 or 800 grit to ready it for primer/ surfacer. It shouldn't take more then an hour to rough up most of the car then a little more to get into the tight spots. Stay away from hard edges. Hand sand those and only where you have too.
If the cars got one or more re-paints on it strip it down.
Mark

[CAMAROBOY69]

If you dont have any idea whats under the paint then blast it. It is amazing what you find under some of these cars that seem to be painted perfectly. I have seen quarter panels made from bondo, newspaper, and coat hangers way to much. If I dont know whats under the paint I strip it off one way or another.

[muthstryker]

i planned on blasting it anyways but i just wanted to see what your thoughts were. when they painted the cars when they where first produced didnt they paint everything the same color as the car?? like under the truck lid and stuff? the code on my car says the original color is tyrol blue, but under like the carpet and the door jams and every where else. its like a darker tan color, and not the tyrol blue. the car even has the original lables and stuff so i really dont think it was ever painted.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

We've been DA'ing all exterior panels on my car down to bare metal and will media blast the underside, in the wheel wells, etc. We figured we'd save a few $$ on the media blaster for the exterior panels and reduce the risk of warping. It doesn't take all that long with a DA.

[TA219]

I did mine by hand (and some of it was wasted time as I have had to cut out metal after finding what was underneath)


I did it by hand b/c i didnt have the extra $$ to have it blasted and I had all of the time in the world to get it done.

The paint was so thick on mine that a DA sander took forever... i had to use a drill, sander attachment, and 40grit to cut down to the factory paint job and through bondo. Once i got to that point then i switched to a finer grit.

I couldnt tell you how long it took (in hours)

[muthstryker]

what if i was to sand the exterior buy hand, buy a sand blaster, and blast the interior? that way no exterior panels are in danger of warping. and that way i could save 800-900 dollars. and i do have alot of time so im not worried about never doing it. and i just bought a 60 gallon IR compressor for 300$ from my grandmas ex husband who used it twice. so i think i just might have to go shopping tommarow.

[colt zantop]

media blasting dont warp panels....sand blasting does......so dont worry about warping with media blasting....

[Todds69]

Use a chemical stripper then wipe it down with thinner and hit it with the DA.

[muthstryker]

cant a chemical stripper get messy tho??

[awr68]

I sanded mine with a DA to bare metal...twice...dont ask! It is a lot of work and I will never build another car without taking it in for chemical stripping. I didn't want to pay for this at the time but have since changed my thoughts on the matter.

I did sand blast a little of the underside where I couldn't reach with a sander, it got the job done, but I am still having sand fall out everywhere eash time I spin the rotisserie...and that was months ago! Not a big fan of blasting!!

[Ralph LoGrasso]

what if i was to sand the exterior buy hand, buy a sand blaster, and blast the interior? that way no exterior panels are in danger of warping. and that way i could save 800-900 dollars. and i do have alot of time so im not worried about never doing it. and i just bought a 60 gallon IR compressor for 300$ from my grandmas ex husband who used it twice. so i think i just might have to go shopping tommarow.

Just make sure you buy a good sand blaster or your efforts will be futile. I initially purchased the $50 craftsman sandblaster and it was useless, it would've taken me 2-3 hours to sandblast my subframe. I returned that and finally ponied up the coin ($300) for an industrial sandblaster.

[hiwayman]

get a 7in soft faced stick it disc works on a low speed buff 36grit will wip paint off easy

[CAMAROBOY69]

Paint strippers are not worth the money. We also made that mistake and ended up forking out over $50.00 in paint stripper that just didnt do what we wanted. It was supposed to strip everything down to the metal in one or 2 applications and that just didnt happen at all. Also the smell was nausiating even in a well ventilated area. Not reallly much else to say at this point. We have presented almost ever option to you.

[Todds69]

cant a chemical stripper get messy tho??

They can be messy, but so is the dust from all the sanding. Just different kind of messy.

[painterdude32]

If you want to do a top-notch job? I highly recommend taking the car completely apart. interior out, doors ,fenders ,hood ,deck lid off, and having it chemically stiriped or (dipped). It seems most of the rod shops in our area are going that way.It strips and cleans inside and out. I've had a couple done ,and it seems to be the hot ticket! There is a facility in Portland Or. They charge $150.00 per panel and around $1200.00 for the main body(firewall,quarters,roof ect.)If you want more info.

American Metal Cleaning
9940 N Vancouver Way 97217
(503)283-1046