question about things learned while stripping paint... - Page 3

mb911 · mb911's Garage

I have never seen this before and have repainted many cars. I guess I will go get one of those tools today and try it out this weekend on my quarters

brittbolen · 01-13-2006, 08:02 AM

There is an 'art' to this, with just the right angle and pressure it works really well, and obviously you need to work with the curves in the right way to keep the blade flat on the metal...

i like the lack of toxic chemical aspect the best... just vacuum when you're done...

B

kenikh · 01-13-2006, 08:41 AM

I'm late to the party, but I will add what I know. Myself and a buddy stripped his '66 Mustang with razor blades; the whole car. Took a Saturday and Sunday in the summer. The heat of the sun softened the paint nicely and it came off in sheets once you got the hang of the blade. We worked at a leisurely pace and results were excellent. Any really difficult spots were hit with aerosol aircraft stripper after the bulk of work was done.

evill · evill's Garage

Okay, are we talking about one of those tools with the 2 sided blade that you drag along the side of a house to scrape off the paint, or one of the small flat razor blade holders?

Ed

kenikh · 01-13-2006, 08:51 AM

We used the small, flat, generic razor blade holders. I'd use the Sears tool in the first posting if I were to do it again.

brittbolen · 01-13-2006, 09:43 AM

flat single edge blades... you want the tool from the first post, the simple stanley holder that lets you slide the blade back into the handle is useless because you push one time and the damn thing closes.

Britt

wowzer911 · 01-14-2006, 06:53 AM

How long can you leave a car stripped of paint before you begin the re-painting process? My cars next step toward "restoration" is adding Carrera flares, replacing both front fenders and both doors, misc. body work, then stripped down for paint. I plan on doing all the work myself except paint prep and actual painting. But i'm not sure as to the order all this work should be done in. Can you leave bare metal exposed for say a month or even two, or should it be protected or coated with something?

brittbolen · 01-14-2006, 08:01 AM

(assuming your garage is not dank (you're not thinking of getting rid of the dank moe?))

My mechanic told me to spray the bare metal with Ospho, wait a minute or two and wipe it off, and then you'll be fine. There is a 356 at the shop that has been there for several years that was treated this way and is still rust free...

britt

brittbolen · 01-28-2006, 08:48 PM

progress update...

Bondo is all removed, kinda big dent, should be fixable...

Roof stripped really easy, took like an hour...

I'm having porsche withdrawl, I had to ask people for rides today at our local PCA saturday coffee, got to ride in a 94 928 GTS, and a 64 356 coupe... both were fun, but that GTS was DAMN fun

Britt

dtw · 01-28-2006, 09:38 PM

Sounds like I need to start attending those coffees, eh? A GTS coupe is one of my wet dream cars...never seen one.

Warning, infidels!!! This thread is now being hijacked for the glory of Allah!

Hey Britt...check it out...I called Chuck Miller for a lead on paint. He suggested Frank Gibson. Only problem is, he can't take it for a couple months. My shop here in Raleigh fell through...shop manager was excited about doing it, but wasn't getting the right vibes from his crew on seeing through a project like this. He preferred to turn it down, than get it wrong. That earns huge points...he'll get the bumper replacement on my 530i for sure.

Anyway:
Look, I made a clean spot in the engine bay!! Next weekend I go over this with a plastic bristle brush and laquer thinner, to prep for paint:

I'm sorta dying to reinstall this thing - tighten a few clamps, turn a few more wrenches, it's done:

The trunk is pretty clean, another few sessions with the air hose and vacuum (SHE'S GOING FROM SUCK TO BLOW!!!) and this will be ready for reassembly:

The cabin is almost there too. Gotta strip the rest of the old glue after I run up the street and get some adhesive remover. Started on it today with laquer thinner, NOT PLEASANT. The interior arrived this week from CA, at least half of it did, one more box this coming week, and it looks awesome.

stormmaster · stormmaster's Garage

OK.....for my .02......I love razor blade method to a point.....however....before you are finished I suggest getting some 400 grit paper and getting the areas the blades don't get...and then go over the whole car with a DA....your painter will thank you and it will save you more money at the body shop...I personally would not send it to a painter until every bit of old primer and body filler was removed from the car....If you want the rust fixed let a qualified body tech fix it....if your skills are lacking...same with the small dents here and there...it looks to me that they should be very repairable with less body filler than was used before....plastic filler is great....but it has its limits....looks like the last repairer just filled the dents without working the dents....looks like you have the workings of a nice car to start with....I think you should do it correctly this time....like somebody said earlier....it cost less to do it right the first time....by the way....I stripped a 55 Chevy with with the blade method....and i didnt have a tool or a holder except for the five fingers attached to each wrist....take your time....looks like you are doing a great job....enjoy it....

wowzer911 · 01-28-2006, 10:26 PM

Britt,
Are you removing multiple coats of paint, or was the body work just touch-ups? I'm considering using the blade method, but I have two coats of paint and primer to remove. PO did a color change, primed and painted over the original paint. I'm thinking it may be too much paint to razor off. Any thoughts?

brittbolen · 01-29-2006, 07:10 AM

Wowzer911,

My car has 2 coats of paint, there is some glazing compound between the whites in places, but no primer, and it's coming off pretty easy...

I did some aerosol stripper yesterday on the spots that were just not scraping, and the tighter curves which were causing me trouble... I used a wire wheel on the bondo spot.

DTW,
Your car is looking good, one other body shop rec, have you talked to Paragon on Capitol? I checked with Carolina Chem Strip, they're wicked expensive, and have almost a 2 month backlog! I think i'll just strip the fender myself... i got time.

You should come to coffee on Saturday, we get a pretty big crowd every weekend, the only downside is that it's at 8AM ON SATURDAY. I get up earlier on saturday than any other day of the week... Lets see what came this weekend...

64 356, 76 911, 88 turbo cab, 89 turbo look cab, 928, 928S, 928 S4, 928GT, 928GTS, 968, 944, some boxsters, 2 987s, 993, 996.

Past highlights... 70 911E

356 Carrera GT, 2005 Carrera GT, 73 Carrera RS (the real thing), 911GT3RS, 89 speedster, a couple of convertible Ds...

Things I haven't seen yet.... 914, 924, 959. yet...

Yeah, PCA koffeeklatch, my favorite part of the week!

Britt

911SCfanatic · 911SCfanatic's Garage

Britt, you inspired my to try the blade method. Picked up the holder at Sears Hardware and tried it on a few spots--it was suprisingly very easy and quick. Like Stormmaster suggested, I'll go over it with a DA sander when I've gotten off as much as I can.

brittbolen · 03-12-2006, 07:37 PM

Well it's about time for an update!

Needless to say, I've been doing some more stripping! I started using aerosol stripper on the small bits that I couldn't manage to get with the blade. I also picked up a perfect fender, and finished stripping my good one so I can get the headlight bucket replaced. I had to cut my front bumperettes after the bolts broke, and then dropped the bumpers off to be blasted.

But thats not the big news...

Car goes to the body shop in 2 weeks, ready or not, for 2 reasons, first it gets the paint process going, and thus should get me on the track in May, and second the shop can do it in 2 weeks, so it's time to get going!

brittbolen · 03-12-2006, 07:41 PM

Alas nothing goes quite perfectly, found these rusty spots underneath the paint under the rocker trim...

B

brittbolen · 03-14-2006, 07:11 PM

Good news! The rusty patches on my rockers were just surface stuff, a wire brush removed a lot of it, so I think a tiny bit of sand blasting will be perfect to fix it up.

So mb911, how'd it go using the razor?

Britt

mb911 · mb911's Garage

It worked fine for me but It did nick the steel. I was not real excited about that. However on my thread "my winter project" I will have updates of my front fenders by the weekend

brittbolen · 03-15-2006, 06:04 AM

Yeah, I'll find out how much of a problem the nicking is... at least for me there isn't any galvanizing to remove. It worked really well on the away from fender flares, the flares are just not the right shape.

Britt

brittbolen · 03-21-2006, 12:31 PM

The car goes to the body shop on friday morning, they'll finish the paint, take out the glass finish the rust repair, undent it, and then do all the paint shop stuff, and then i'll put it back together!

SWEET!

B

DE @ VIR on May 19 or BUST!