Bodywork, Paint, Interior, Trim, & Wiring

Do any of you guys know of a paint remover that will remove the cream colored factory etch primer that is on my TR6? I have been using Circa 1850 which works good on the paint and primer. I discovered that my car has been painted twice and the paint remover works well on the newer layers but will not touch the factory etch primer. I asked an old auto-body man if there was such a thing and he told me it was sand paper. My goal is to take the entire car down to bare metal and create a good base for the new paint job. I am using an orbital sander and it still is very slow removing that factory primer. I was tempted to take it down to the primer and start from there but the primer has little pick marks and scratches from the process of removing the newer layers of paint that would take forever to feather out or fill with surfacing putty. Media blasting is out of the question as it would be fairly costly.
If anybody out there has any ideas please let me know. Thanks

Have you tried aircraft stripper? Most auto parts stores around here carry it.

Byron, I found some Scotch Brite discs on line that worked on my 4" grinder. Really nice to strip paint with the medium grit brown discs. Leaves a nice metal finish and does't heat up the surface too much. Don't clog with old paint either. Not cheap, but it won't take too many to clean off a LBC. I did my MGA with about 10 discs. [www.amazon.com]

Bill ,are these sticky back like DA discs? if so what did you use for the back plate on your 4" I've only seen the cutoff wheel
style for the 4" grinder.

They have a velcro like material on the back and require a special disc that screws right on the grinder. If you look at the linked ad it mentions the required disc in the small print near the bottom. I found the whole kit on an e-bay ad several years ago, think I only paid about $25 for the backing disc and a package of 10 pads.

These disks worked real good to strip right down to metal (Fast), need to have something over your face for breathing. They will thread right onto your disk grinder. The material is about 1/2" thick. On smooth surfaces, it will last longer of coarse.

I purchased them from Home Depot and a welding shop.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2010 01:43AM by 74ls1tr6.

X2 on that one, those take off the undercoating very well too!

Well I am making progress on the removal of multiple layers of paint. I am using an orbital sander with 60 or 80 grit paper depending on how rough the panel looks. I have found some nasties under the paint: the front of the hood had bondo that was almost a 1/4 of an inch thick. I think I can get away with a much thinner layer of bondo. I am going to attempt to shrink out a lot of the small dents with a bit of heat and quenching with cold water. If any of you out there have done this I would appreciate any feedback. I have not figured out how to remove the antenna from the left fender; any suggestions on how these things attach?

Unless you have some experience shrinking metal by the heat and quench method I'd suggest trying a shrinking disc instead. Easy to make and much easier to use for the beginner. You can see a demo here and I think they also sell the discs. [wolfesmetalfabrication.com]

The antenna,

If you can't take off the retainer nut on the top at the body off, then it's about unbolting the fender.

3 bolts in the door post.
1 bolt on top of the door post (outside)
3 bolts on the bottom of rocker panel.
then some bolts in the engine compartment on top of the fender, maybe half.

You might be able to get to it at that point by pulling the fender away some, so that you can get to the back side.

Good Luck

Another option is this stripping disk. It screws on to a standard 4 1/2" angle grinder. You have to buy a backing plate adapter too. They remove paint like mad. Do it outside, the dust is tremendous. Two or three pads will strip a LBC.
If you go with the chemical stripper route try this old trick. I used to do this when stripping aircraft. Dump the stripper on a panel. Do not brush it around. Place black plastic sheeting over the panel. Spread the stripper around under the plastic. Leave it in the sun to cook a bit. You can get all layers off at once like this. Even Imron. The plastic keeps the solvents from evaporating. Be sure to wash the stripper out of all seams with a pressure washer. Otherwise you will have stripper bleeding into the new paint.

-Tim

Thanks guys for the input. It has been a while since I have done any paint removal as I have been concentrating on rust repair and procurring the engine. The only paint left to strip is on the back of the hood, trunk and the rear valence. I think I will try the 3M SAND BLASTER for the remaining paint. Tim who sells this 3M SAND BLASTER?

BWA, I get locally at Menard's. I think most big box home improvement stores might have them. If not Amazon.com has them.
I really like the surface they leave on the metal. Just right for primer.

- Tim

Hello guys I have been very busy the last while and the frame has been cleaned up and painted while on the rotisserie. The frame is now on the ground with the engine and tranny bolted on. The tub is now mounted on the rotisserie and I just finished cleaning it up. I tried very hard to find 3m fibre discs here in Canada but they are quite rare up here in Canada. Instead I found that Carborundum makes a comparable disc and I found it works quite well.





The next phase is to patch all the rust on the tub.

Cheers

Byron

Faster ?

Wow! Byron, that certainly looks like a lot of work.

Thanks Curtis, yes it was a lot of work and I really did not enjoy it much but it had to done this way as it would have costed me $1500.00 to get it media blasted. Being the thrifty Scotsman I am with Irish and Finnish roots I decided to go the manual route and it only cost me $200.00 in abrasives.

Sorry to revive this thread but a local guy in Asheville soda blasts MGBs for $650. He has several on his website that he has done. Takes him 3 hours +/-.

NCtim

Its okay Tim it just illustrates the fact that up here in Canada it costs a lot more to get anything done on your car. For some reason we get hosed on lots of stuff. My buddy has found it is cheaper to drive for 5 hours to Billings Montana to get new tires for his truck. He has done this and saved hundreds of dollars.
I found it was cheaper to buy my clutch assembly from BCC in Ohio and have them mail it to me than for me to buy it locally.

Cheers
Byron

I wonder how much it costs to buy the soda media? I have an old non-pressurized hopper style sand blaster, I have no doubt it'd take way more than 3 hours to do the job with it though. Still, it seems HF was selling the pressure style for around a C note and that would be faster.

What do you do for clean-up? Hose it down with water? Seems that would make it rust.

Jim