Removing paint, any easy way?

H

Helibatman

New Member
I don't have access to a sand blaster. which is probably the hot ticket here.

How do you guys remove paint?

Chemical strippers look like to big of a pain in the ass, pretty much only leaves me with the option of flappy disc's and wire wheel. The wire wheel is working well, but its a total pain in the dick. messy, tedious, and wires shooting all over the damn place, and doesnt get into all the nooks and crannys very well.

any tricks?
 
I bought an MBX bristle blaster.

http://www.bristle-blaster.com/en
I called them directly, and got a really good deal, better than the local body shop supply could sell me the same item for. He threw in a few extra wheels, and such. I asked him to give me a sales pitch on why I should buy the MBX brand name, instead of the dynabrade model or Snap On's Crud Thug.
The sales guy at MBX laughed, and said, yeah, we still make the business end of Snap On's unit, and they put their own air motor on it.
They also make the wire wheels for snap on as well as dynabrade. So it appears that MBX is the original maker I think, and so I went with them.

Now, it takes paint and weather strip glue, and all manner of nasty stuff off that just gums up a wire wheel. I first saw it when a friend in Sweden posted a bunch of info on his a couple years ago.
It was a pricey unit, about 500 bucks when our dollar was at par, but every time I take something to the sand blast place it costs me multiple hundreds of dollars as well. Not sure I would want to do a very large area with it, but it sure works well on nooks and crannies, and will work just fine on a large area if you have patience, and it won't warp the sheet metal.
They have a video on their site that shows them taking rust and barnacles off a ship's hull in dry dock. That is with their industrial version with the extra bar on it that "flings" the wire bristles at the work piece. I was told for automotive sheet metal that I didn't need that heavy duty unit.
There's my nickel's worth, your mileage may vary.
 
Strip it Disks. Come in a variety of names and manufactures. Sizes range from 2" up to 5 or 6" Dia. The ones that have a arbor to put in a drill work very well.

No flying metal shrapnel. Google Images

3m-00051131074668-clean-and-strip-disc-alo-4in-xf-tr-pk10-g7504585_4598619.jpg


3m-30016-clean-and-strip-disc-sc-3in-xcrs-tr-pk40_5002228.jpg


119752.jpg
 
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I always sand sheetmetal. It doesn't warp anything and it doesn't leave a chemical residue. It's messy and takes time but all methods do anyway.

Sheldon
 
I use a lot of different methods from media blasting to chemical stripping it usually depends on what the piece is. However I prefer sanding with the big 8 inch foam pad and blasting edges and problem areas. I have used wire wheels and the strip discs but "ALWAYS" sand the stripped surface with sand paper as the wire may polish the metal and the strip discs may leave a plastic residue on the metal. Besides that any metal left bare for more than 8 hours should really be re-sanded and aluminium no more than 6 hours.


Bash
 
Well, I agree totally with you guys that do the sanding type of removal. I do some work for others, and I get asked if I would like a panel sandblasted. I always say no. Please just clean up the inside, scrape any tar off, and just lightly sand any crusty crap off the inside. Leave the outside totally alone.
I use a 6 inch round piece of plywood with 40 grit on it. It is perfectly flat, and has the hook and loop stuff glued to it. I run that over every square inch of the metal, and whatever someone thinks is a really nice fender instantly shows up all the highs and lows that you didn't think were there.
Then I proceed to bump up the low spots, and bring down the high spots. Going back and forth with the sanding disc, to hammer and dolly, then shrinking disc to take down the highs, and sand some more to find more highs and lows.
It is metal finishing the panel, and by the time you have it perfectly straight, there won't be much paint left on the panel. The paint works very well for a guide coat of sorts that you don't have to spray on, cause its already there.
NO, its not easy, as it is a lot of work, but its very satisfying compared to smearing on the bondo to the tops of the high areas, and sculpting the shape to match the high spots.
In one respect its an easy way to remove the paint, as you are not really removing the paint as much as you are metal finishing the panel. By the time its metal finished, most of the paint will be gone, as a by product of metal finishing. There again, is my nickel's worth.
 
I used aircraft stripper on my 63 Sunbeam Alpine. took doors, hood, trunk lid off, wet each peice with stripper. Covered them with clear plastic, too keep it wet. used a plastic scraper to remove paint right to metal. Rinsed with soapy, then clear water & blew with air. No dust at all, then light sanding before prep work.This was done in carport on warm day. Worked great,. Ended doing the rest of car a little at a time.don't splash in eyes!!!!!! OWWWWW!
 
I used 3M safest stripper on my Anglia and paint just peeled off with the plastic wrap . Its water based and as such putting the saran wrap over it as it is applied really helps to keep it from drying on . I left it on overnight and it literally peeled off when the wrap was removed .
 
I put plastic sheet under everything & no mess at all ..no dust either!! Lots of rinsing & used a gas leafblower, work great!! No ugly fumes !!!! Make sure you wear googles & rubber gloves!!!
 
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