Paint stripping help

[Lowejackson]

After a rather unfortunate incident where someone has poured paint stripper gel over every panel, I need to get the car repaired. My guess is that most of the effort is in the paint prep.

My question is what is the most effective manner in stripping away all the paint and is there anything else I can do to help in the preparation to painting to help reduce labour costs.

I am no expert but money is very very tight. The only tools I have is patients and a PC.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Paint stripping help

Originally posted by Lowejackson
After a rather unfortunate incident where someone has poured paint stripper gel over every panel, I need to get the car repaired. My guess is that most of the effort is in the paint prep.

My question is what is the most effective manner in stripping away all the paint and is there anything else I can do to help in the preparation to painting to help reduce labour costs.

I am no expert but money is very very tight. The only tools I have is patients and a PC.

Hi Lowejackson,

Talk with the paint shop that is going to repaint your car and explain to them that you want to do as much as you can yourself before giving them your car. This could include removing bumpers, trim, badges, etc.

Ask them if they would prefer your to sand down the finish, or chemically strip the finish. Chances are they would prefer you to sand it down because that way the original factory sealer and primer coats will be intact. (Pretty hard to beat factory applied paint in tightly controlled settings. Especially if the car body was dipped).

Then take it from there. Chemical strippers are not to expensive and a little goes a long way. Make sure you purchase some good safety gloves so you don’t burn yourself. Also wire brushes, scrapers and paper towels and garbage bags are a must.

If you only sand down your finish, you can use the PC, check with the body shop for the grit they recommend you remove the outer layers with, and which grit size you finish sand with. This will vary among paint shops. One thing however, you will find your sanding discs will load up pretty quickly. Most body shops use air powered DA sanders which spin much faster than the plug in PC style. The high rpms act to remove a lot of paint fast. The sanding discs still load up, but it does seem to be more efficient.

Lynn removed all the paint off her Caddy by mostly chemically stripping it, but she also used her G-100 dual action polisher to help out. It was a lot of work, but we eventually took it all the way down to bare metal and then primered it with Sikkens epoxy primer. She did everything, including turning our garage into a temporary paint booth.

Here are some pictures,

http://www.bad59.com/bad59photos.html

Best of luck and thanks for joining Meguiar’s Online and posting your first questions?

Mike

[Lowejackson]

Thank you for your help. If this all works out I will document it all.

Do the panels need to be removed or can they be paint in situ. One other limiation is that the car is parked on a road.

Steven