DA sand or media blast

[coronet340]

I've got a nice straight body but it has 2 layers of paint and a top layer of primer on a 67 coronet.
Ideally I would love to strip this bad boy down and have it blasted. BUT I do not have to room or the money to do that in the near future.
So my question is how hard is it to just sand it down to bare metal with a good brand DA random orbit sander?

I could wait to have it blasted but I would like to drive the car by next summer and to do that I need to run a new wiring harness, brake lines, etc (which I dont want to do now then strip it down and redo it to get it blasted)
Any opinions or fresh ideas would be greatly appreciated. and my price idea of the blasting is like $3000

 

[eric383]

I would strip myself if I didn't want to pay for it. You can try with a DA but I've had better luck with the 3M Bristle Discs like these on a angle grinder
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3M-Bristle-..._Automotive_Tools&hash=item35cd2ca8cb&vxp=mtr
I'm sure you can find these cheaper, this is just an example. If you have a auto paint store nearby they probably have these and can give advice. Just dont get the panel too hot or you can have some warpage happening. good luck.

 

[rocky61201]

I've had to make this exact same decision a couple years ago. I didn't have the money to send mine out for blasting or set up my own garage and buy the equipment to do it. I chose to strip my entire body down to bare metal with a DA as well. My small compressor couldn't keep up with the CFM requirement for continuous use of sanding so I ended up doing the whole thing with a basic electric drill with a sandpaper attachment. It worked just fine and myself and the neighbors didn't have to listen to my noisy compressor constantly running.

You can experiment with a variety of abrasive discs like eric383 suggested, but once you settle on one that works best for you try to buy in bulk. Your gonna need alot of them, lol. Lots of metal on our b-bodies.

 

[krowbar]

What about a paint stripper chemical. Put it on then just scrape it off.

 

[coronet340]

I would strip myself if I didn't want to pay for it. You can try with a DA but I've had better luck with the 3M Bristle Discs like these on a angle grinder
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3M-Bristle-..._Automotive_Tools&hash=item35cd2ca8cb&vxp=mtr
I'm sure you can find these cheaper, this is just an example. If you have a auto paint store nearby they probably have these and can give advice. Just dont get the panel too hot or you can have some warpage happening. good luck.

Right on I'll check these out

And I should have been more specific. I would be using an electric DA.

- - - Updated - - -

I've had to make this exact same decision a couple years ago. I didn't have the money to send mine out for blasting or set up my own garage and buy the equipment to do it. I chose to strip my entire body down to bare metal with a DA as well. My small compressor couldn't keep up with the CFM requirement for continuous use of sanding so I ended up doing the whole thing with a basic electric drill with a sandpaper attachment. It worked just fine and myself and the neighbors didn't have to listen to my noisy compressor constantly running.

You can experiment with a variety of abrasive discs like eric383 suggested, but once you settle on one that works best for you try to buy in bulk. Your gonna need alot of them, lol. Lots of metal on our b-bodies.

How much paint did you have on the car and how long did it take you?
Did you go panel by panel and just primer after each section? I'm in south texas so humidity is a factor.

 

[rocky61201]

I probably had only a couple coats, but lots of bondo in different spots. I think most of it was from quick and easy and cheap body shop repairs over the years from minor crash damage. Bound ot happen on a 40 year old car. Some places the bondo was an inch thick. Almost like they couldn't figure out when to use a dent puller or how to use one properly, lol. On the left rear quarter it was caked everywhere from making the whole panel match the 1 tiny high spot from a dent puller gone a little bit to far.

I basically did 1 area or panel at a time and rattled can primered that area when done to protect the bare metal. Once I had the whole care done I quickly sanded all the rattle can primer off before delivering to the paint/body shop. All in all, I probably spent about an hour total on each panel, thats not counting beer or bathroom breaks. So maybe 1 panel completed per evening. Here are some pics.



- - - Updated - - -

Oh yea 1 other thing. You can't see any of the sanding scuff marks I left in the metal after sanding. Here is a pic of the car after final paint. Its a 3 stage pearl white and it looks just fine.

 

[Photon440]

That looks pretty nice, Rocky. 3 stage...hope you don't have to touch it up later. Is that a Cadillac colour?

 

[rocky61201]

The colour is from a colour chart my wife picked out from the Sherwin Williams AWX waterborne paint system. She picked out the metalic black stripe and layout as well cuz it's her car. The off center stripe wasn't my idea but it looks better in person and its growing on me. Yes the colour looks similar to what you see on the Escalade's or those pearl white Lexas IS250's you see driving around.

The clear coat is very durable, I wacked it pretty good when the fuel tank slipped out of my hands. It didn't leave a mark. Glad she wasn't there when it happened.

 

[coronet340]

Damn that does look good I'm a lot more confident in this task now. did you just do the outside of the body? I was thinking about doing my engine bay/firewall, trunk n wheel wells.

 

[rocky61201]

Since this was a colour change I did everything. Engine bay, interior, trunk were taken down to bare metal as well. The engine bay was a nightmare with tons of surface rust. I used a wire wheel stripper on an electric drill for that. Like most people I'm on a really tight budget. The interior I primed and painted myself using diplicolor rattle can in black since the interior will be all black. The trunk I used rattle can duplicolor trunk splatter paint in gray. it's very durable stuff. I think all of this stuff I did was one of the main reasons I got my paint job for only $3k. I dropped the car off stripped of all trim/bumpers and everything. All they had to do was fix some minor rust repair, a little hammer and dolly work, and shoot the outside only.

 

[Plucked Chicken]

+

 

[747mopar]

The disc Plucked Chicken posted work really well for paint remover but if it were me I'd do as Krobar suggested. It takes very little time and effort to remove paint with a chemical stripper but is messy and stinks pretty bad. Once you've got it mostly off and washed then come in with the DA and it will take no time to get it all prepped for body work. Now I'll tell you a little trick that works awesome but may not be to intelligent, on some of my parts I coated them with the stripper then power washed them (2,500 psi) "that works great". It left the parts looking like they just came off the line but goggles, gloves, sleeves, etc are essential (it burns).

 

[Cornpatch MO]

I would strip myself if I didn't want to pay for it. You can try with a DA but I've had better luck with the 3M Bristle Discs like these on a angle grinder
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3M-Bristle-..._Automotive_Tools&hash=item35cd2ca8cb&vxp=mtr
I'm sure you can find these cheaper, this is just an example. If you have a auto paint store nearby they probably have these and can give advice. Just dont get the panel too hot or you can have some warpage happening. good luck.

I would like to try that. I once took the paint off a car with a larger body grinder and 80 grit disc. It worked OK for a while then the paint got hot enough to melt. That was a MESS!...........................MO

 

[Donny]

I can get your entire car with take-offs done for under the stated 3k budget, and I'm in Texas too! Sanding won't do it all; you also benefit from having the 'punching action' of media coming at your car -- it finds weak metal areas and punches through whereas sanding won't, and sanding will never get corners and crevices especially up in the Firewall engine bay area. Cheers!

 

[conv67bdere]

I can get your entire car with take-offs done for under the stated 3k budget, and I'm in Texas too! Sanding won't do it all; you also benefit from having the 'punching action' of media coming at your car -- it finds weak metal areas and punches through whereas sanding won't, and sanding will never get corners and crevices especially up in the Firewall engine bay area. Cheers!

Agreed Donny . . . I'm finding that out now as I'm trying to clean out my engine compartment - the crevices, the angles, lots of areas I can't get into . . .

 

[aldsed]

I did a 70 Roadrunner last year and had it media blasted and then covered with DP90 epoxy primer. It cost 1800.00 and had to tow it to their shop. It seemed a little high but man did it turn out great and super smooth ready for minimal bodywork. Took them 2 days and done. Really saved a lot of time.

 

[rgoss_10]

I had my car media blasted. Whole car stripped was $1900.00. $3000.00 seems extreme...

I've got a nice straight body but it has 2 layers of paint and a top layer of primer on a 67 coronet.
Ideally I would love to strip this bad boy down and have it blasted. BUT I do not have to room or the money to do that in the near future.
So my question is how hard is it to just sand it down to bare metal with a good brand DA random orbit sander?

I could wait to have it blasted but I would like to drive the car by next summer and to do that I need to run a new wiring harness, brake lines, etc (which I dont want to do now then strip it down and redo it to get it blasted)
Any opinions or fresh ideas would be greatly appreciated. and my price idea of the blasting is like $3000

 

[Donny]

I'll do it for $2999.00 2 days is almost too quick, and they Epoxy primed it too? Did you see it in bare metal before the paint went on? There's no way I can do a car that quickly, hell, I take 2 days just to go over it and scrape the crap off it (I really should not be so 'perfect' as it never pays fully for hours spent)

 

[coronet340]

I had my car media blasted. Whole car stripped was $1900.00. $3000.00 seems extreme...

Even 2000 is really pushing it for me. I know its worth it but its still a rather large purchase.

- - - Updated - - -

I can get your entire car with take-offs done for under the stated 3k budget, and I'm in Texas too! Sanding won't do it all; you also benefit from having the 'punching action' of media coming at your car -- it finds weak metal areas and punches through whereas sanding won't, and sanding will never get corners and crevices especially up in the Firewall engine bay area. Cheers!

I figured the firewall was going to be a pain figured I'd do my best with a drill n coned wire wheel
Where in SA is your shop?

 

[eric383]

I have used the paint stripper method. The things I didn't like were the smell, the gunk after you scrape off the old paint,and the burning sensation if you happen to get it on your skin. Wear gloves and eye protection. If the stripper seems to dry out before it totally works just cover it with some thin plastic drop cloth or saran wrap to slow the evaporation. It works but is just too messy for me. At least with a mechanical stripper all you get is dust. If you think it will flash rust then prime as you go. If you go with epoxy primer and mix too much for what you are shooting just put the leftover primer in the freezer to stop the curing process and bring it out of the freezer for the next panel. I have stored epoxy primer like this for 1 to 2 months without it hardening and no adverse reaction when I sprayed it. I have seen some guys spray the bare metal with WD40 after stripping to prevent rust before priming. Just remember to thoroughly clean this before shooting primer.