I've received a couple of responses that tell me that I gave the wrong idea
when I talked about "stripping" my car. I haven't taken the paint off, I
have removed all the removable parts, including doors, front end sheet
metal, interior, mechanical parts etc. My idea is to make the car a rolling
shell so that every body part will be painted the finish color on all
surfaces, including factory type overspray on the interior sheet metal, so
that it will look as if it left the factory in the new color I've chosen.
While I am doing the parts removal and cleaning type of preparation work
myself to save money and to be sure no parts are damaged or lost, I have
engaged a professional restoration shop to do the actual paint work for me,
and they'll decide on what they need in the way of paint removal.
As for taking paint off, I believe that there is no need to take it down to
bare metal if the old paint has no adhesion problems. Use it as a base
coat under your new primer. It has already held on to the metal all these
years, there's no reason to think it will fail now. Of course if there is
body damage or any evidence of rust, you do have to take those areas down to
bare metal. I prefer to sandblast, then coat with a very good primer (like
DP-40) to prevent recurring problems. If the rust is really severe, you are
probably going to need POR-15 or Corroless rust treatment, but you need to
read up on those to learn how to use them.
The problem with chemical strippers is that they tend to be very hard to
remove from the nooks and crannies, and will cause problems for the new
paint in the future.
Of course there are potential problems with sand blasting also, the car
really has to be devoid of any moving parts before you sand blast, and of
course all the glass and trim has to be removed also. You can mask off an
area for localized sand blasting, but in my experience, the sand somehow
always seems to get into some place you don't want it, like door hinges and
the like.
Dick Benjamin
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