What's the quickest way to strip my car down to the bare metal? I want to strip a lot of it down, nearly the whole thing.

Jon

 

The best way is to bead blast, second best is sanding, and last is chemical stripper.

The reason is that bead blasting will strip without pitting (though you'll have to deal with dust afterwards). If you go this route, have it professionally done. Costs a couple hundred dollars.

Sanding is quick, but can leave scratches that will show up later in your paint job.

Chemical stripper gets into every crevice, and can leach out later ruining your paint job. I recommend only using chemical stripper on parts that have been removed (even then bead blasting is often better).

Whatever you do, you need to prime right away.

 

My dad and I are doing a 54 Mercury and what we did was used stripper and then sanded it with an air sander. It's not hard.

 

Bead blasting? Is that like sandblasting?
I just need something to remove the pinholes created by rust, that were poorly covered up early with bondo.... i have a feeling though most of the rust was removed, the little bit that's left in the pinholes will come back to haunt me. How would I bead blast? And if i paid a bodyshop to do it, how much would it cost to do that, then redo the body work, and paint it afterwards, assuming that before the painjob will cost me $1500. There are about 5 or 6 medium size patches of semi-fixed rust.
Thanks for the help.

Jon

 

anyone? not to be impatient, just wanna know so i can decide this weekend to have a shop do it, or do it myself..

Jon

 

Yes, except with glass beads instead of sand. Not as abrasive, and won't cause a panel to heat up and warp as easily as sand will.

If you are dealing with rust, it really needs to be cut and replaced. Anything else will always come back to haunt you sooner or later.

There are usually shops that specialize in the blasting, and a lot of times body shops will outsource to them. Look in your phone book, or ask around from some body shops. If you are really strapped for cash, sanding can be cheaper, but sandpaper costs a quite a bit if you are buying enough discs to strip a complete car.

 

Oh man.. cut and replaced? everything? I had rust around the windshield.. that'd be impossible for someone like me!!!!!! ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I suppose I can have someone blast it, and hope a body shop won't charge me too much to have everything cut and welded. I don't think I would be capable of doing all that welding. I'm just not that skilled..

Jon

 

If you really can't afford to cut and weld, my next suggestion would be to use POR-15 in the holes, but you really need to be able to coat the backside too for it to work good. POR-15 works absolutely great on everything I've used it on (my '68 Hurst/Olds, various construction equipment). It seals the area completely stopping the rust. While it looks like paint, moisture actually makes it harder, which is the opposite of paint. The only thing is if you can't get an area covered, it can't protect. BTW, you don't want to use it on any exterior surfaces that will later show. Window channels and the like are fine.

If you go this route, then after applying the POR-15, use some of their epoxy putty to fill the holes, sand, prime, and paint. This should give a water tight, (semi)permanent fix.

 

I took my car down to bare metal a few years ago using paint stripper. The stuff was pretty potent, it burned like crazy if you get it on your skin. All you have to do is just spread it on and the paint bubbles off. Then you just scrape it off with a putty knife.

 

The guys are giving you really good advice!
You really should "cut and weld", but if it isn't a financial option for you then yeah the POR-15 in the holes, will do the job fine. Just remember that if a job is worth doing then it's worth doing right. So if you are not confident in doing it yourself then pay someone else to do it.