I'm sure this questions prolly been asked before, but here it is again.....what's the best way to get the old paint off a 68 vette?
I've been using the razor blade trick, and it works pretty well for the actual paint layer, but that lousy red primer doesn't scrape off too easy. Acetone will take it off, but it'll take me 200 pounds of shop rags and 15 gal's of acetoneto finish....lol.
Under the redish primer is also a white "primer"? or maybe spray on filler of some sort in certian places. This stuff almost seems water soluble as it sands off fairly easy with 400 grit wet sanding.
I know there are strippers that claim to be fiberglass safe but I'm alwasy a little wary about them, and I want to get it to bare glass(or as close as possible) so I can start the new paint job with a good quality 2 part epoxy primer.
If anyone has had any good/easy results with somthing , let me know.

AX

 

Best way is sanding it off with 220 or even 180 grit paper and use Hi-build primer. But if the paint is stable there is no need to strip it all off. In my humble opinion, "Fiberglass Safe" strippers don't exsist. if they will take the paint off they will degrade the fiberglass even if it doesn't show. after all the resin is plastic and alot of solvents can comprimise its integrity. good luck with it and sanding it out if done right can be a huge bennifit to the final finish. Cheers
Just my $.02

 

I stripped the paint off my driver's side door before I repainted car (should have followed other's advice and stripped entire car) because it had been repainted three times, twice at factory. The stripper I used stopped at the factory primer. Took all the other paints and primers off tho. I was told that the stripper would stop at the factory primer and it did. I've read where plastic media blasting is OK for fiberglass but never tried it. The reason I should have stripped the factory paint was that after a few years, it started to make itself shown thru the new paint even tho we put a sealer on before priming.

 

I had my corvette blasted with plastic media. Of course the guy doing it has done many of them and has just the right touch to remove the paint and not hack up the body. A couple of coats of slick sand to smooth out all the ripples and the body is damn near perfect considering they came from the factory with the waves and ripples. Best thing about having the body blasted this way was it only took a couple of hours and we were able to get on it right away.

[IMG]local://upfiles/3239/BA2CC5B9C0B84D7D803A0CF3EC51C0BC.jpg[/IMG]

 

Looks good. Always did like those Ansen Sprint II mags too. Is that a factory color?

 

I must say, I agree. I use a D-A and a long board.

 

Words of caution just for the FYI factor. Not trying to be a schmuck here just informative.

Plastic media blasting is a good way to remove paint as well as strippers,but it is critical that the operator of the equipment knows exactly what he is doing and if the barcol(hardness) of the plastic media is low or soft enough.Especially on a vette. The media must be harder than the paint and softer than the plasticresin.Not sure on cost(fairly expensive?) to have a car blasted with specialty media and I know it isvery easy to blast holes right through the fiberglass body. The body is not much more than a fat1/8" (.038) thick anyway.

A little technical back ground info here. Fiberglass resin(plastic) is quite soft as far as Barcol(hardness standard) and the resin used in vettes is a filled resin with a filler like Aluma Chlorhydrate, to assist in dissipating heat in the molding proses and thus even softer as any filler compromises the resin.The process in which vettes are molded is Compression or Pressure molding, It is done in a vacuum with closed molds and the glass and resin is injected under high pressure and then a vacuum is pulled to compress it even further.The heat isextremeand is detrimental to glass and resin.Ever see a wrecked vette? after only a few days of being exposed to the elements it will degrade and come off as dust and leave the little strands of glass sticking up. After all it is small filaments of extruded glass in a certain shape to trap and hold the plastic resin as the plastic resin does not adhere to glass. It's only bond is completely mechanical. I believe vettes are molded of "S" and "E" glass strands,thats the shape of the extruded strand chopped into very small lengths. Very unstable and prone to degradation as it is very porous and full of small voidswhich willabsorb anything that comes in contact with it such asstrippers, oil, etc.That's why small bumps to a vette will cause lots of damage. Most stripper are formulated from things like toulene and methylene chloride The later will melt the soles off your shoes instantly and burn the skin off your hands if left long enough.

What a wind bag huh?

Sorry to be long winded here LOL. I guess I got carried away. My point is this. It is real easy to mess up the body on a vette even if it doesn't look like you did. So be careful with media blasting and strippers. Have fun with it. refinishing a car is a lot of fun.Cheers

 

73 shark
Yes that is a factory color called war bonnet yellow although it looks gold to me. I then had the painter use an amber color and airbrush the highlights of the fenders, around the back and the cowl on the hood. It really gives the car a different look of different colors when in the sunlight. The war bonnet yellow was only available I believe in 71 and 72. Thanks for the compliment. I was kind of worried on how it would turn out but am now very satisfied with it.

 

The media blasting is out for me as I have the car mostly disasembled, and I just don't trust it. Almost everyone I talked to about it puts in the "cover their *** comment" like..."it shouldn't be a problem, but it is fiberglass under there"....really....fiberglass....gee I didn't know that....lol.
And like Blueshark said, I just don't trust strippers.
I'v pretty much decided to finish up with the razor blade and sandpaper routine since it's almost done now.
House of Kolor has a polyester 2 part catilizedhigh build primer-surfacer thats supposed to work really well on fiberglass so I'm going to give that a try.
I'll let you know how it turns out, and try to get some pics up.

 

Yup.