Striptease

Part 2 of the "Get a Wedgie" TR7 restoration series

The mechanism for removing old paint depends on several factors. First and foremost is the overall condition of the body. The amount of rust or the lack thereof sets the stage in the direction you want to go. There are probably numerous ways people have removed paint, but I'm just going to talk about the different ways that I have had experience with and tricks associated with them.

Removal can be broken down to a couple of processes, chemical and mechanical (abrasives). Now each of these categories can be broken down even more. For example, the chemical process can include standard paint remover application that involves brushing/spraying remover on, up to and including "dipping" the entire body tub into a paint removal solution. Mechanical categories include sand/media blasting and sanders, particularly air powered DA's (that's dual action rotary sanders).

There are several different "dipping" services that you can use. The rust factor will determine which way you want to go. The basic "dipping" features a chemical process that removes paint and that's it, rust remains. The rust remains in the seams, remains in the rockers, it just looks at you - laughing. A more expensive service performs a similar paint removal process but has the added benefit of a second step. Once the paint is removed, the tub is neutralized of any paint remover. The second part is where the tub is placed into another tank in which "reverse electroplating" is applied. This process is set up to where the oxidized metal (rust) is pulled from the metal and deposited onto collection plates in the tank. This is pretty cool, think of it as a way to provide a rust surface to those collection plates but your tub is the source of the rust! Now the advantage here is two fold. Not only is all your paint removed but the rust as well. This includes rust in the seams, rust in the rockers and now you can be the one laughing. As mentioned this is more costly but depending on the extent of the rust, this maybe your only choice. In my humble opinion if you are going after a perfect ground up restore, this is the way to go.

Media blasting uses plastic or other similar materials to strip the paint. Under no circumstances should you use sand to blast any outside metal work of your car! Blasting in this way causes several problems. First it has a tendency to warp sheet metal during the stripping action. Second, when you strip in this manner, you tend to move in "waves" as you strip the paint. Guess what, those "waves" are translated into the same look and feel when you paint. So unless you are looking for that Lake Michigan effect, don't sandblast the outside of the car. Wheel arches, floor pans, trunks, whatever, knock yourself out. Sand works great for those extra rusty areas. Media blasting works fine, but if you have excessive rust in body seams, inside rockers and such, no matter how hard you try, it won't get the bad stuff out of those areas.

The other "mechanical" category involves sanding the paint off. Unless you have an excessive amount of time on your hands this process alone takes awhile. Now you can certainly cut that time by using lower grit sandpaper but you risk damaging the surface of the bodywork that even the best primer solids have a hard time overcoming. It just takes a long time to convert that paint into fine particles. I use a hybrid approach combining both paint remover (chemical) and sanding. First I use paint remover to strip the majority of paint and primer down to bare metal. It doesn't have to be perfectly clean, just so you get the majority off. I then follow up with a 6" DA using 120 grit Aluminum Oxide PSA sandpaper. Wow, what the heck is all that? Ok we already know that DA is a dual action sander, 6" means the diameter of the disk. Knowing about grit is a given (no it isn't that stupid newspaper you found advertised to sell in the back of comic books - they still have that?). You should look for aluminum oxide type paper to use. Another type is silica oxide, well this contains silicates, duh. Problem with that type is that silicates is one of the causes for a condition called "fish-eye" in paint finishes. You have to do some extra metal prep washdowns before applying paint. PSA is pressure sensitive adhesive, that means you peel and stick the sanding disks to the DA pad.

The decision point for this TR7 was easy since there was minimal rust as the only major problem was in the front arches. There was no need to go to the expense of a full body tub dip as I was able to use standard paint remover products and the DA to do what I needed. The arches were going to be cut out and new ones welded in, giving me easy access to fix any inner arch rust.... Hey wait that's Part 3: Body Heat!!!

Project Totals
	   Current Phase      Totals to Date
Hours:          85.0              104.5
Cost:          $18.72*            $18.72
* Paint Remover

By Joe "Stagmeister" Pawlak