Paint stripping

**Nigelk777** · 05-04-2011, 09:18 PM

Ok, here goes guys and girls. Can I please have your thoughts on the best way to strip off paint, spray putty and bog. I'm talking of a bare shell here - no interior, trim, glass etc.

The options I am aware of are:

1. Orbital air sander or wire brush/flap wheel on grinder. Fast. Noisy. Messy. Cheap and fun but will p*** off my wife and neighbours. Can do it at home tho.

2. Paint stripper. Almost as fast. Messy. Needs scraping and to be washed off. Who wants to put water on bare metal? Again, can do it at home.

3. Soda/bead/shell blasting. From all accounts, bead and shell blasting is better than soda (not as much residue) but will this get rid of the spray putty, bog and surface rust? Can't do it at home.

4. Sand blasting. Will presumably get rid of the everything but leaves the metal pitted and eats through delicate metal bits? (eg. parts of my roof seem a bit thin). Can't do it at home.

5. Dipping. Costly. Can take a week. Acid gets into everything.

I'd appreciate your thoughts, advice and any war stories ... At this stage I'm leaning towards sand blasting only because I want to get everything off the metal, but perhaps soda or bead blasting does this also?

Many thanks, Nige.

**Vombil** · 05-04-2011, 09:26 PM

haven't commenced my restos yet but i think what ill do is wizz paint, grind out bog, cut rust sections and plate, and bead/sand or soda the ute/van joiner seams, door seams etc (hard to get any rust thats there out with anything else id think)

Ive also heard that one of the blasting forms changes the properties of the metal and makes it hard or near impossible to work with (according to a panel beater i spoke to)

ill be watching this great thread closely!

**SandmanMuscle** · 05-04-2011, 09:30 PM

I stumbled across this the other day http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-o.../soda_blaster/

Pretty keen to find out if it works. Any thoughts?

**wbute** · 05-04-2011, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by Vombil

haven't commenced my restos yet but i think what ill do is wizz paint, grind out bog, cut rust sections and plate, and bead/sand or soda the ute/van joiner seams, door seams etc (hard to get any rust thats there out with anything else id think)

Ive also heard that one of the blasting forms changes the properties of the metal and makes it hard or near impossible to work with (according to a panel beater i spoke to)

ill be watching this great thread closely!

May be something similar to shotpeening maybe? From what I just read it reduces tension in the surface of metal but in turn increases the tensile strength below the surface. I here by accept that I am most probably incorrect though.

**Absinth** · 05-04-2011, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by SandmanMuscle

I stumbled across this the other day http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-o.../soda_blaster/

Pretty keen to find out if it works. Any thoughts?

Works really well. I had one of those cheap trade tools bead blasting cabinets and used soda through it for cleaning my jeep carbs and speedo's.

Would take a while doing a whole car though...

**ambientgoat** · 05-04-2011, 11:36 PM

I really like the 3M strip disks that look like a really course sponge.

Make really short work of paint and if you hit much bog you look like frosty the snowman in a short ammount of time. (Wear a mask, old paint could be lead based)

Also, if you not stupid about it I've not noticed any real heat in the panel you're stripping.

**adam perth** · 05-04-2011, 11:48 PM

i haven't painted a car for years. but new products are on the market all the time.

talk to a Dupont or PPG sales rep and get the latest info on whats out there....

i would do what vombil said, except soda blast tricky areas.

to soda blast a whole car will cost $2500

**TwoTees** · 06-04-2011, 05:16 AM

I have stripped 3 cars in my time.
The first 2 were paint stripper and the last one bead blast.

For what it costs in stripper, time and lots of mess bead blasting is cheap.
Bead never warped my vans side panels and leaves the metal looking like new. They used garnet on the inside of doors etc where there was no chance of distortion and does leave a slightly rough finish that can be just buzzed off with a sander.

One thing negative I found with bead is I had my m21 and shifter rebuilt no long before the blaster did his bit and my newly greased shifter got a lot of crap in it so I would cover and any greasy bits.

I have looked at soda and this could be perhaps be a better way to go. You can just wash away any residue from out of the car but I had a quote to do 2 guards the other week and he wanted $250 but the bead guy did it for $100.

Bead blasting gets my vote.

**NickyG** · 06-04-2011, 03:15 PM

i might try that DIY soda blast method when i next need to remove some paint to get to some rust.. genius

**SNDMN** · 06-04-2011, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by ambientgoat

I really like the 3M strip disks that look like a really course sponge.

Make really short work of paint and if you hit much bog you look like frosty the snowman in a short ammount of time. (Wear a mask, old paint could be lead based)

Also, if you not stupid about it I've not noticed any real heat in the panel you're stripping.

I'm with AG on this, I also use the strip discs and a wire wheel in some areas. Yes it is time consuming and can be messy (bog areas) as he says but you can do it at home at your own pace and it's pretty easy.