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.

I'd love to see some of the pictures if you are willing to post them.
Which parts were you able to have done seperately?

Thanks,
Carrigan

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What kind of car is it? I highly recommend Captain Lee's Metal Prep. It is by far the best, in that you do not have to rinse it with water. Thus, not starting rust everywhere.
Sam

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Hi I had the front quarter panels, the bonnet and boot, skuttle plan and all four doors done separately.

It's a 1967 VC Valiant, I'm in Australian I got it shipped from South Australia to QLD for $700 (dad nearly killed me haha), has a 225 and 3 speed auto .

I've noticed when using other methods such as the wire wheel, or wire brushes paint stripper etc that rust forms easier, when I used the orbital sander rust doesn't appear as fast at all.

Now I just wash it with was and grease remover.

Will post some photos shortly.

You really should get some Captain Lees on it immediately after getting the paint off. Rust starts to form as soon as the metal is bare. And then, spray it with a coat of self etching primier before you do any body work. This creates a good rust proofing that you can work over. I have done this many times, and it works well.

Sam

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Hi that's what I plan to do for my next project, However don't really have good facilities to do that atm.
I'd love to paint it myself by 2pac is illegal to spray here in aus in the backyard etc.

At this point I'm sanding it all to bare metal over a few days, I wax an grease remove it on a regular basis and because it's in one room a thick film of 'paint mist' lies over all bare metal. No surface rust appearing yet and it's been over a week I'm going to get it towed tomorrow.

Think the wax and grease remover I use is similar to your captain lees? Painter said once they strip something back to bare metal they wash it with this stuff then they paint directly on it.

For the paper I've been using Coarse and Very coarse to get the paint off then I use very fine. Very fine seems to smooth the metal out nicely and gives it a good look ready to be prepared correctly for the painters to do the job.


Photos soon!

Hi I took your advice with the Etch primer seems like a great idea, found out I can't get it towed for a week so rust would be all over my car by then I believe. Cost me $30 so that's pretty good I think.