Stripping Paint

[chongo25]

I'm sure some of you know I am pretty new to fixing classic cars. Well I am wanting to do my on paint stripping on the car because the prices are a little too high for at the moment and plus it gives me something to do when not working on the mechanical stuff on the car. Do you any of you guys recommend doing it yourself or leaving to someone who has experience doing it? My main concern is messing up something on the car to make it worse  or more expensive to fix.  Well let me know,  and what you would recommend when it comes taking the paint off.

[drewcrane]

Is the car disassembled? if so how much rust can you actually see/find? I took the whole car apart , put it on a rotisserie ,and had mine media blasted with Starbrite,safe effective cost about 5 to 700 bucks

If you go the chemical route remember you will have to neutralize the chemical after it is done,it will go in every crack and crevice.

Kind of a mess ,not my cuppa tea.

Then you can always grind it off, but then you risk removing steel.

 so it can be done alot of ways ,just some of my experiences

 

[dusty]

The Bove advice about media blasting is sound and good advice. If you do strip it you can sand it but that is labor intensive.
The mAin thing to ask yourelf is how long will it sit, stripped and even more vulnerable to the elements.
Primers breath so even if you put etch on or epoxy the metal still won't be protected.

Whatever you do once you remove an area of paint to bare metal be sure to etch and epoxy prime AND spray chep rattle can paint on it to seal it even cheap rustoleum.. anything. Otherwise you will rust *under* yer primer.

[bentpshrods]

 I was in the same situation. I had never done a bit of body work before. When I started the repaint on my cuda I had more time than money.  Plus I wanted to learn how so I went on line to various sites and got an idea of what to do.  Autobodystore.com  is a great site---plus bought most of my stuff thru Len on there.  I got a nice Makita variable speed buffer, a 7" hook and loop pad, and a box of 8" 80 grit sanding disks and went to town. That plus a can or two of aircraft paint stripper for hard to reach areas, I stripped the whole car/engine bay/trunk to bare metal. It is very labor intensive---but do a bit every day and it does'nt take that long. It generates a lot of dust to. Do most of the sanding outside if possible, and get a good mask. I learned a bunch by doing it myself, plus saved a lot of money. Got a whole new respect for guys who do this for a living to. Once you get it striped and see what you got you can go on from there.   Plus if it gets to be to much you can then have it blasted. 

[chongo25]

Ok thanks for the advice. Ill have to check the website out.

[torredcuda]

Some good advice here-either paint stripper or 80 grit sanding will work but as said be sure to prep and seal the metal with an epoxy primer or it will rust.The other option is Picklex for protecting the metal.  http://www.picklex.com/home.html

[dutch]

I did the 80 grit thing.  When you hit the factory primer, use a large sanding block and start sanding by hand. The left over primer will be your guide to see where the body isn`t straight.