posted Sun March 02 2003 09:48 AM
I plan on having my car painted in the spring. Because of the cost, approx. $3500 I would like to do some of the work myself. What I would like to know is the best way to strip the paint. the guy at the paint shop that was recommended to me said to use a razor blade and peel the paint off the best I could. I question this as it would seem to be very time consuming. I dont have any air-tools so that is out of the question. could someone help me out here with some suggestions! thank-you in advance. gerry mac

Gerry, check out this link. It is about painting and 3/4 of the way down, he talks about stripping. Hope this helps
Chris
http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/PaintTechPaper.doc

Hi Chris! Thanks for your time, I really appreciate it! I went to the link and it has lots of information that will be very useful for my painting process! Thanks again!

Any time gerry, that's why we are here... to help one another

Paint Stripping: I took a fast look at that paint tech paper, looks pretty good. I also agree with the idea of not completely stripping off the paint. Stripping down to the bare glass or bare metal is a selling point for upping the cost of the job. Once your car is repainted, how do you know it was stripped to the glass? If the old paint is in good condition, not cracked or peeling, all you need to do is sand the hell out of it to give your new coat something to grab to.

If your car has been painted twice before, then I would strip it as the new paint would make the total paint thickness too thick. Yes, some people repaint over old jobs 3 - 4 times. I'm redoing a 75 right now that was painted 4 times in some areas. This paint is really thick. I have seen thinner coats of body putty.

My method of choice for stripping is the razorblade method. Yes it takes time but the benefit is you don't screw up the body with chemical strippers. Basic rule of thumb, if it comes off easily with the blade, if it doesn't, I just sand it.

thanks roy. i have never attempted this before but what yousay makes sence! i don't want to go the chemical route. thanks for your reply!