im getting to the point in my 69 project where i need to start getting the paint off.
heres the thing though-
i dont have a big compressor for sand blasting.
i dont want to use chemical strippers (i here lots of bad things about these and have been told not to use chemical stipppers by a few people).
and grinding the firewall (inside and out) all the interior of the cab, the bed floor etc. would take FOREVER, and wouldnt get in the nooks and crannys!
i dont have thousands of dollars to spend on hiring a company to sandblast my truck.
what do i do
anyone close to me looking to make some money letting me use your sandblaster setup?
dont sandblast the body. you have to power sand or hand sand. the small spots just have to be roughed up to let the primer stick to it. it doesnt have to come off unless its not sticky to the body then it has to come off and probably will if its flaking off.
Use a DA on all of the big stuff. But the body work is nothing get in a hurry about. Its all about the prep. work before you paint. What else can you use that not a chemical, sandblasting or sanding.
Kyle
i am going to to DA sand all the outside body for sure.
but it would incredibly hard to get all the paint off of stuff inside, like radio mount area, ash tray area etc.
fordman,
i guess i could leave the hard to reach spots and shoot it will primer and smooth it flat. didnt think of that.
but i dont want too much old paint on this truck. there is a lot of hard-to-grind spots.
no dont leave the hard to reach spots unsanded. it only takes a bit of slight sanding to rough up the old paint for the primer to stick. if you dont rough it up the primer or paint wont stick and will flake off soon after its painted. that why you see all those repianted low riders paint peeling. they didnt take time to take the trim off or sand all the small areas. surely you have seen those guys driving those kinds of cars around.
i know about the sanding part.
ive been studying the world of body/paint for a while now. ive been on a few forums asking away and reading all the posts.
personally I wouldnt want to use those tools (angle grinder and a course grit disc, except for the crevices) they have the likelihood of creating an uneven surface (they'll remove uneven and various amounts of metal along with the paint) and dont start with the hard stuff first, get a DA with 80grit(if you want to remove the paint, 180 or 220 if you just want the primer or sealer to stick) and sand all the easy spots, everywhere you can get the DA to sand, it save you time later (like if you spent the hard work, time, and sweat to remove the paint in areas you thought the DA wouldnt get, by using the "rust removing tools" described above, but you'd be surprised what you can get with a DA, you could probably get at least 95% or so of the vehicle with it, for cracks, crevices and other hard to reach spots, just use your sandpaper by hand, fold it in half, stick it in the cracks and sand away, for other areas, use a sanding block, and wrap sand paper around a small rod, use the wire stripping wheel and rust removing grinder disc only on the final areas that you couldnt get at by these other methods, oh and of course stripping the paint with a DA is a sure way to get body panel warpage, you gotta keep it moving, and definetely get a long board sander, whether manual or powered, you'll really need it to flatten everything out
How do you guys strip and paint the underbody stuff? Specifically, I want to strip and paint the bottom of my cab, the cab mounts, bottom of th bed, etc.
Keith, where can I get those 3M discs? I looked at Home Depot and Lowe's, they don't have them. Is there a specific name or number for them? 3M makes a variety of different wheels for angle grinders.
If you keep the DA flat and moving it will create a pretty flat surface, dont put uneven pressure on it, really no pressure at all, the weight of the DA is enough, its the grinders and wire wheels that create an uneven surface, so DA everything, get an extra DA pad or two, cause youll need them, after everythings DA'd, go back and hit the spots by hand the DA wouldnt get, you might have to get inventive and make some sanding tools (wrapping sand paper around a rod, or thin cardboard tube works well, for curved surfaces), then make sure you final sand your body (after bodywork) with 220 grit, where you went to bare metal will need some quality self etch primer, then prime everything with a high build primer, apply very thin and dry black guide coat (flat black spray paint) then pull your long board out and keep it flat with some more 180 or 220, this will get the rest of the uneveness out, long block everything in a "X" pattern (cross hatch pattern), small block sand where the longboard wont go, ("X" pattern), those dual sided grey and black, 1/2 inch thick foam sanding blocks work very well for certain surfaces, well worth the 10 bucks they cost, after the trucks in high build prime and after youve guide coated it, and after youve sanded the guide coat off with the long board, then go back and sand everything again (yeah it sucks, but if you want it right you have to do it) with 320 or 400 grit, after the whole things sanded with 400, blow everything out with a air gun on your compressor, and I mean everything, open the doors and hood and like a crack wh*re, blow, blow, blow, blow the inside and engine compartment, it should take an hour or 2 of solid blowing, (wear ear plugs) then clean everything with soap and water, and preclean, make sure no water is hiding anywhere in any cracks, and preclean about 3 or 4 more times, now its ready for masking, mask it up, and then repeat the blowing and precleaning steps, (dont blow to hard on your paper/tape) and push it into your booth or wherever your painting, wrap a chain around the back axle and let it hang on the ground, seal off the booth, and use tack rag on everything, twice, apply sealer, base, and clear coat, wet sand and buff, and boom show quality paint job, all in all pretty easy not as bad as I made it sound, but trust me you dont want a crappy paint job, might as well do it right, sorry about the long post, but maybe itll help someone.
strip the bottom of truck with sand blaster (plastic media, or soda)
Great information, it's obvious you have a lot of experience with this. But some of us have NO experience doing body work, so it's going to take a lot of learning.
Can you explain what all of these tools are? What is a longboard?
How can I find an auto body supply store? I'm sure you mean some kind of real supplier and not a generic pep boys/autozone store.
Also, how do I know what kind of paint system to use? There are so many different schools of thought on paint, and I can't nail anyone down on a specific brand or type of paint that will work for me.
Last, do you think I can adequately strip and paint my cab corners and cab floor without removing the cab from the frame?
