why shouldn't I strip and disassembly my car myself?
 

Leaving out the obvious answers of
1) it's a lot of work
2) paint stripper hazmat fun
3) you don't know what you're doing
4) you need tools and space and such to do it right

What can i screw up that could cause serious problems with my repaint? My plan/hope is to deliver a rust repaired stripped glass out roller to a paint shop that can then surface prep, prime, and paint (and all the sanding phases) the car. Then i'll put it back together.

I plan to do this stuff at my mechanic's place so I'll have access to tools, compressed air, probably a lift, and my mechanic who can help with stuff when i get stuck. I've been worried that if I strip it and don't prime it immediately I'll have trouble, but I've seen a couple cars sitting in the shop there without paint for, literally, years and they're fine. Any rust that I find I can have fixed by my mechanic if it gets beyond me.

Frankly it sounds like fun, and it should save me a butt load of money.

So what am I overlooking?

thanks,

Britt, idealistic optimistic fool

You should do it.

do it, I'm on the second round and it's addicting! Remember to bag everything on the car you remove and label it all - even if you think you'll remember where something goes later. As far as rust repair I don't have any experience, but the dissasembly is no problem - and yes you save a buttload of money. As far as space and tools - tools required are mostly the usual stuff with a couple oddball ones thrown in (like door striker star thingy), and you will prbably need a white trash style shelving unit in the yard to hold everything (use 2x4's, plywood, taps, and rubbermaid boxes).

The best part is you'll know your car really well when you're done.

The worst part is your social life will revolve around spending hours in the garage working on the car.

The weirdest part is you will want to say goodnight to the car each time you go to bed :-)

...well it's my bedtime, better go say goodnight...

cali74 is right. I'm doing that to my car right now. In fact, I've been doing it for more than a year! I began suffering from an acute bout of the dreaded "while you're in there" syndrome. Ended up disassembling the whole thing and rebuilding/refurbishing/restoring every damned thing in the world. I hope you know your mechanic friend really well, because he's going to have to tolerate you around there for a long time. Whatever time you think the job will take you, multiply it by 4 or more. If you can get storage shelves & area right there by the car, you should go for it. Do tag & bag and store everything. Also take digital pictures, especially if it will be a while before you get back to something. Also, don't remove the door hinge parts from the body and you can actually leave the doors, trunk & engine cover on if you want. They can be done well without removing them. I must admit, I've gone a bit overboard with mine, but it will be an almost new car when finished. Even then there will still be tons of things I can still do to it. Never ending.

Wow, now I do not feel so bad. I have been disassembling mine for just a hair over a year. Lost my job so no money to spend on the car - but I am cleaning parts. Only a few items left to remove on the car. Once I find a job paint and engine work begins:)

Other than the things you noted, many people start a "bare metal" paint job not realizing their car is full of bondo. Chemical strippper will ruin any existing filler work...even if done correctly. It will also ruin brightwork, chrome, plastic, (your skin) etc if you are careless....So if all you really want is a color change or typical paint job....You want to think long and hard about what you want before starting. and how much time you will have to do the work.

Have a digital camera handy, a box of ziplock bags and a sharpie pen for loose hardware and be in store for a ton of pebbles and small rocks falling out and a lot of siezed fasteners and odd nylon clips and one way plugs.

So when should one strip, and when should one just spray it?

My rationale for stripping most, if not all, of hte paint is that I want to make sure I get all the rust taken care of. Any filler i find will hopefully be in the panels i'm replacing.

On a positive note I found a painter who will paint a disassembled roller, and didn't have a 6 month backlog to work through either.

Britt