Hi,

I have a 67 valiant, original paint. i want it all gone and I want to do it myself...

I've been using paint stripper (automotive stripper I can buy from Repco or Supercheap) It seems to be crap. I leave it on there for the time the tin says and it nearly makes no difference.

So what can I do? Should I try buy some industrial stripper?

I've already destroyed the bearing in dads drill using a wire attachment :O
And I've got a compressor but using it to sand blast isn't that good at all.

Does anyone know any ideas or tricks of the trade? or what would old pops do? etc

Any help would be appreciated.

For paint stripper you want one with the word aircraft somewhere on the label. It's not hard to get, I found it at a Kragen's. Comes in quart or aerosol. You want to keep that stuff far away from skin, if it spends a few seconds on any bare skin it will sting like no other. It wreaks too.

One coat will take you down to the metal for most paints, two at the most. You can use a sharp edge, such as a metal putty knife, to score the paint every inch or so. I've found this helps it work quicker as the solution touches the bare metal then works its way between each slot you cut.

You don't want to wire wheel the surface afterwords unless you have completely scraped it all off or it has dried to a crisp. If any wet/active stripper gets flung around... well, I already warned you about the burn.

Thanks very much I'll look tomorrow.

Wish I'd been warned of the wire wheel first, I used wax and grease remover and then this wire wheel. swear my body was on fire :O.

If the paint is solid, you might not need to take it all off. It makes an excellent base coat for most paints. I only remove the paint where I suspect damage, bad bondo, or rust.

If you leave the factory paint, sand it first, and give it a base coat of self etching primer. YOu can then bondo over the self etching primer. I promise you this will work, in spite of what it says on every bondo can.

Wax removal is essential though. Silicone and paint don't mix and the result is paint that does not flow out nicely. For this reason, you must always put fish-eye in your paint to help it flow out.

Sam

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I used POR-15 brand paint stripper; it worked very well on normal paint and even worked (much less well) on epoxy paint. I found that you needed to work much faster than the label indicated.

The stuff burns skin on contact, so they are serious when they tell you to wear gloves, but it washes off easily.

Sam, why self etching primer? I thought that was for bare metal?

It is, but you can put it over a solid base coat of paint as well. And if there are any adhesion concerns, this will solve them. Also, I know from my own, and other's experience that you can bondo over self etching primer safely. This car below, others were prepped that way. Self etching primer makes a very good base coat to start body work over. I used Dupont's mustard colored self etching primer. This car was not taken down to bare metal except where there was rust. Why strip the paint off and expose your steel to moisture and invite rust to form, unless you have to?

Sam

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Sam is absolutely right,
Your lucky to have original paint on that car. stripping it just made it 100X more work than you needed to do. Stripping is more for when you have a car that had been previously molested and your unsure of the integrity of the prep and body work done by the last guy.

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Tyler, 19
72 Dart Swinger /6T

I see and I definitely agree about not going down to bare metal unless you have to. I'll be prepping my Valiant here relatively soon but I'm only stripping one of the quarters down to the metal because it has obvious bondo throughout it. The rest is just getting sanded down and scuffed. That old paint is stuck on there and wants to stay. Makes for a great base.