Hi,
So I'm restoring my first car and Since I'm young money is an issue. I decided for the paint job I'll strip it back myself. A job bigger than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be really big.
So I used alot of tarps and nails and fixed up the garage to be air tight (more or less :/) Turns out we had our months expected rain in around 6 hours
and that I could have checked the weather outlook before starting such a huge task.Either way I learned a few things
Sand blasting a whole car - expensive to pay someone else but the most effective, Note very expensive.
While the sand blasting was great, (I got a lot of parts done separately) I still had to go over a few sections with the wire wheel.
Sand blasting yourself - unless you have a good compressor (something around $1000 5HP Hi flo etc) and a sand blaster (also expensive) not worth it. Then the clean up is a total bitch, and the sand gets everywhere.
Paint stripper - Time consuming and not perfect still requires some sanding etc, harder to dispose of environmental issues and so on. Also very costly.
Wire wheel on a Drill or grinder etc Works great but the metal doesn't end up even. If done long enough it will go through the metal. Works excellent on rust and for just small rust spots etc.
Instead I bought an orbital sander, a decent mask, fully body suit and alot of sanding discs. Total cost around $120. and this is and has been the most effective way to strip my car back to bare metal
. A little bit of hand sanding is required for corners and edges etc, also on sections where led was poured.While the sand blasting was great, (I got a lot of parts done separately) I still had to go over a few sections with the wire wheel.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist like most of you I think you want to know it's a job done properly. And if you do it yourself you'll know exactly whats been done. Orbital sander including tarps has taken a weekend and around $300 for everything.
In total to get my car completely painted in 2pac paint. Few parts buffed etc. I'll have spent around $5000( not including the engine bay). while this is expensive if I didn't try all these other methods, and I didn't pay for any sand blasting and I didn't buy a ($950) rubber kit (HOLYC) I would have spent around $3700.
Hopefully this will help you guys a little, If at least someone can benefit from my experience I'll feel good, If anyone wants to add anything that'd be great. I will post some photos if there's interest.