Best way to remove paint off the car for repaint

[Deadlego]

What the best way to remove the paint on the car to repaint it?? I have not done a fiberglass body before. Im not sure of the best way to remove many layers of paint on the car. There about 3 paint jobs on the car. What ways have you all done this??
I will be doing the paint and body work but not sure about removeing the old paint off the fiberglass body

A couple of options i have thought about

bakeing soda blasting
DA sander ( air sander)

Thanks

 

[Whiteshadow89158]

I'm not positive but when i was helping out a buddy with his MG he had some goop stuff that i applied with a paint brush and then i would have to have it sit for 5 min. after that i got a plastic spatula used for dry while projects and jusr scooped the goop and paint off. it's a repetitive job and you have to be careful when dealing with fiberglass, this process will soften the fibers up.

 

[65-to-00]

ignore everything that has been said so far

;squint:

This is a tough one. A Vette is not just any car and any other experience that you or your buds may have had simply does not apply.

Period and end of story ..... cans of gloopy strippers and blasters and all of that .... put it on the shelf till you find out the right way.

At the momemt, I have stripped a few Porsches, MB, MG and ...... and Corvette.

Guess which one got screwed up? Down in the raw glass lay up material there are bonding strips ... above both are a sealing mud .... the primer and fianally paint. Right now, all I can tell you is that if you strip off the mud base ... you are screwed.

If I was going to do another .... first I'd find a definitive source or person ... and then procede. Lacking that .... I'd not go past the primer and/or do a light sand out ... light as possible ... just enough to address any bubbles, crazing/cracks, chips and such.

We had a guy in Princeton NJ back then (Harold Williams), who was said to be an ace. When he found out who I worked for and the advice I was given and used (go to the bare glass) ... he wouldn't even bail me out. I tried to re-mud the car with coats of primer after coat .... let it sit for weeks in the heat to set up .... and the paint still fell off in sheets.

Light sanding and stay away from the base and bonding stuff. hnoes

 

[KANE]

...Light sanding and stay away from the base and bonding stuff. hnoes

That is truly the safest approach.

 

[Kid_Again]

We did most of the heavy paint removal using a razor blade. Once you get under the paint, it's fairly easy to remove large chunks. Yes, it is time consuming and you have to go through a few boxes of razor blades but anything that saves sanding time is worth it.

DO NOT use liquid strippers which will dissolve into the 'glass/resin. It will continue to bleed off for years after you paint the car, causing bubbles. I have an analogous situation with my '66 where the original lacquer factroy paint job was simply covered over with a catalyzed enamel. This is from a 50 year old paint job and it still bleeds off.

I've tried specially formulated fiberglass stripper for a boat with decent results but I wouldn't try it on a body repaint because of the reasons noted above. Even though the label says it won't penetrate, my luck always differs from the label.:W

 

[Evolution1980]

Brake fluid works everytime!

-------
JUST KIDDING!! DO NOT DO THAT! ...unless it's to someone else's car and you really truly do not like them. And even then you probably shouldn't. (Dislike the person, not the car. :L)

No, I have nothing to offer at this point except some humor and maybe a suggestion to use the search function of the forum. I know this topic has come up a few times over the years.

Oh, wait, here's something I can offer...
Although it's probably too late if the car already has 3 previous paint jobs, but take car when sanding the top creases of the fenders. An easy way to tell how many times our cars have been painted is to check those creases. If they are rounded off, it's been painted a couple times. So take care when sanding to not sand perpendicular across the creases. You want to try and keep them as crisp as possible. (if you care about that)

 

[Deadlego]

The main problems is that paint is too thick just to paint over agien. With it being to thick when a rock hits its just chips but you get big chips. Also I have spots that peeling up because of the thickness of the paint.

well I know the paint stripers are a no go. I will most likely be doing this myself with no budies helping. Most of my friends have no idea on how to paint or do body work.

Here a little information on my experiance and back ground. Current Im a Plantium I-Car technical. I Was working at a body shop till a couple of days ago. I was let go do to the shop being slow and my College class's starting back up. Also I have done a couple of National auto body compotions and the last on I did I placed 4th out of 60 people. So you all dont have worry about my destroy a great car. I have some skills I just have not work with any Fiberglass bodies.

 

[damoroso]

I did my last 81 and didn't have any problem. Actually, there are strippers made specifically for this effort. Go to the local auto paint supply store and ask them. Tell them what you've got and they should be able to point you in the right direction. DO NOT go through the gell coat, and bonding strip adhesives! You'll know them because the gell coat will be grey (like primer) and the bonding strips are green, and look like bondo. You don't want to see fiberglass fibers at all! So when people say the "took it down to the fiberglass" that's usually not the case. What they did was strip all the previous paint off. Another thing to watch is anything you use to scrape the paint off when the stripper is used, can and will gouge the glass if you're not careful. Just take your time and you should be able to get those layers of paint off with little problem, it'll just take time. Also, becareful of the nose and tail, you can gouge them too!

Once you get the majority of the paint off, wet sand the rest. I wouldn't use a DA unless your really good with it, it'll only cause you more work later. Then start bringing it back up with primer (a good fiber fill) fogging it, and wet sanding. When it comes to the creases Evo was talking about, come from the fender up and the surround across the crease. If they're not too bad, this will help put them back. If they are gone, you may have to build them up a bit first.

I'm actually looking forward to doing the 81 I have now!!

 

[tcxd40]

Need to keep in mind that GM stopped using fiberglass in 1973 -74 I think. The product is now "SMC" Sheet molded compound. It does not have the same properties as fiberglass. Yes there is specific strippers made for SMC just as there is specific bonding agents and fillers for it as well.
To strip a vette properly you should remove all of the factory top coat and primer. New paint technologies do not work well with old technologies. With SMC removal of an area down past the gelcoat is much more forgiving than fiberglass.

I stripped my '81 with a razor blade as in one of the previous posts. Then used a DA where applicable and yes I went through a few areas down past the gelcoat, no problems.
I filled the antenna hole, both door handles, and lock cylinder holes. When doing this there is no way not to disturb the gelcoat, again no issues.

Use the correct products for the materials at hand, SMC.

tcxd40

 

[Crimson Thunder]

I got a new Eastwood catalog in the mail today.They sell a "soda blaster"that is used to remove paint.The ad shows it stripping a Corvette.Ive never tried it but it might be worth checing out.

 

[JohnZ]

With SMC removal of an area down past the gelcoat is much more forgiving than fiberglass.

There isn't any gelcoat on Corvettes, and hasn't been since mid-1954; what you find under the factory primer (whether it's a pre-'74 polyester panel or a '74-up SMC panel) is simply the raw, smooth surface of the molded panel as it came out of the mold.

 

[Whiteshadow89158]

very good info!