Paint removing
 

Ok I have to remove over 90% of the paint for the car as most of the paint is starting to bubble which means there's some form of rust under them or the paint is really drying out.
Anyways What I was going to do was use an angle grinder and a wire wheel but that seems way to harsh, so I'm wondering if it would be a bad idea to go to Lowes and rent a sandblaster and blast down the body panels. Which would be better?

Oh and Im gonna spray paint the panels. I think it will turn out nice as I've done it before

sand blaster.

sand blaster, but be careful you dont warp the pannels
or aircraft chemical paint stripper

I've tried that and I could NEVER get that stuff to work right...
Plus side to sandblasting is that the surface rust will go away too, down side is, so will some of the metal.

theres also a variety of blasting material

you would wanna soda blast it but it will take you forever if you dont have a good airtank http://www.eastwood.com/catalog/prod...r/category/10/. sandblasting will warp your sheetmetal. if your good i would suggest a 24grit sandpaper with quick passes. dont do a wire brush or use a grinding wheel to take paint off.

whats wrong with sand paper?

yeah sand paper is my vote. i know a lot of body workers and painters and do a good bit of high quality finish work myself, and from everything i've been able to gather about sand blasting, it pretty much triples the amount of work involved. careful or not, you'll end up with grooves in the body surface from where you hit it too hard. so you'll have to spend weeks and weeks fairing those in. just sand it and know that it's already smooth when you're done.

Well depending on if you have clear coat or not, why not acetone? I hear that it'll turn paint into slime. Might have to buy a good amount of it, but hey, if it works, right?

Otherwise, I'd go sandpaper. Hmm...If you get enough birds to poop on your car....

--Ryan

I've tried sand paper, it takes a very long time to go though like...idk 4-6 layers or paint?

I think I'll try a few different paint removers then sanding w/e doesn't come off

Do you have a DA palm sander? Thats what i'm using right now with some 80 grit paper you could try some coarser grit to do complete panels. I'm only using it to remove the extremely bad spots on my other datsun and it goes through the hundreds of dried up coats of paint pretty quick but if you have a good air compressor. Later on this year when it gets a little colder outside im going to strip it down to bare metal. The thing with the sand blasting if you don't have a booth or anywhere to control the sand its going to be a pain to clean up. You could always strip down the whole car to just the unibody and panels and go get it acid dipped :)

Acid dipped??? Sounds really expesive.
I'll see how my orbital sander does.

ATM I'm doing pretty much all the front end panels, and the doors. After that then I'll start on roof of the body and working down from there. The way I would like to do this would be to take it down to a bare shell and working from there so I can fight all the rust at once. I will probably do that over this winter if I figure out a design for a rotisserie

seriously, if its taking you that long to get through "4-6 layers of paint" then mabe painting isnt your thing.

I'm good with painting, its REMOVING the paint thats a pain in the ass

Aircraft stripper... hands down. If it's not working for you, you aren't applying it correctly. Dab on thick in one direction & let it sit. Worked for me many many times... sanding licks bizzallzzz when you can kick back and have a chemical do the work. You will still need to sand afterwards, but just a quick skim over w/ 80 grit to scratch the metal.

I used the spray car aircraft grade removed, methinks that was a bad idea. I'll try the canned stuff next THEN Sand THEN Primer and so on so forth

Yep... that's the prob. Use the gel type.

Ah Well I'll try that when I get the money for the paint, I'll start with the hood first then the rest of the Z. should be fun...Or I'm gonna find a ton of hidden rust. who knows

acid dipping has down sides. i've heard it soaks into the metal and may have good results for a while, but it keeps dissolving your parts and eventually they just disappear lol.

if you're having trouble getting the paint off with sandpaper, you're not doing it right. you have to use a long soft block (or the longest one possible for the area), and if you've got several layers to go through and hope to get to metal, you need 80 grit for most of it. good 80 grit too. the stuff does go dull so PLENTY of GOOD 80 grit.

this is of course if you don't go with the suggested air craft remover, on which i don't have an opinion cause i've never used it.

Actually This is gonna wait till I clean my shop out entirely sept for some benches and tools and build the rotisserie then I'll just work on the Z to get all the rust clean and everything ready for paint then I'll paint it. If I do that Im not going to rattle can the underside. I'll use something like POR-15 to keep it from rusting again

Ok which is better from bare metal? Zinc Rich Primer? Or Etching Primer?

EDIT: What are the headlight buckets made of? Plastic? and will Aircraft grade paint remover ruin them?

The headlight buckets, are made of fiberglass, I am pretty sure of. I don't know if the remover will ruin them. Hopefully somebody else knows. As for the primer, not sure on that one.

If you have multiple paint layers, you can use normal paint stripper on the headlight buckets, otherwise you can use the spray on kind, or use a paint stripper designed for fiberglass surfaces (can be obtained from most auto paint supply stores).

A good read on zinc primer: http://www.paintcenter.org/rj/Aug02h.cfm

etching primer on bare metal is almost essential. it "etches" into the surface to ensure adhesion. i don't know about this zinc stuff, but putting paint or high build primer on bare metal i know is bad.

^^^ Indeed.

I use Dupont Variprime on bare metal, then Uro Primer over it. Dupont & 3M FTW!

http://www.scaleautomag.com/sca/obje...sgf0804_09.jpg