Never expected it to be easy, but..

[Guest onedesertdog]

Trying my best to get the paint off my 65 Rivi. It looks like an Alligator. It must have at least 2 cracked coats over the original Artic white. Using a DA w/ 80 grit. Having some luck, but I end up going down to the bare metal. It globs up, and I think I'm taking the old off, and then bam, right to the base primer/metal. Am I missing something do you think? Maybe not patient enough? I've spent 2 hours on 1 sq. ft.. of body. Any thoughts/ direction I could take, or learn from. Would it be bad to just take it to bare metal?

Thanks,

Buddy

[lrlforfun]

OK Buddy: Mask off an area and use aircraft stripper. Do small areas at one time. Follow directions and after it's all cleaned up use 150 grit with a d-a sander. Make sure your compressor can handle the air flow of the tool or it won't do the job.

About 2-3 gallons of stripper is under $100. Media blasting individual parts like the fenders and door skins is OK. Hoods and trunks require a media blaster who's skill level is high or they might warp. If you media blast the entire car you will make a BIG Mess because unless everything is apart the media gets everywhere. Good luck, Mitch

[Guest Rob J]

I'd take the entire car to a pro blaster, and have the car soda blasted. Soda blasting won't warp the metal, won't damage the glass, stainless, chrome, ect. It only removes paint, and old body filler material. It's worth it.

[steelman]

Remember that the base factory coat is acrylic laquer. If you try to put a modern paint over top of it, it will bubble and krinkle and you will have a big mess and a lot of wasted money. Need to take it to bare metal if you are going to paint the whole car. Small touch ups are OK, but if you have the DA out, it is getting serious. I have had good luck with the 3M stripper wheels and a small right angle air grinder. If you keep the RPMs between 6-8000 they do a good job getting to bare metal without gumming up, but it is slow with a 3" disc. Do a small area at a time. Not good if you are in a hurry, as progress is slow.

[Guest onedesertdog]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I was hoping for a stripper that would loosen up the first couple coats w/o taking the base off, if I watched it closely. I'll look into the soda blasting.

I always thought you could paint over Lacquer, but not Lacquer over paint?

So basically, I'm not doing anything wrong as far as trying to remove the top two coats and occasionally going to metal? My air comp. keeps up pretty good using the d/a w/80grit.

[Guest onedesertdog]

I checked out the Soda Blaster on E-bay made by Eastwood. Small Portable unit for home use. Looks to be around $260. Something to think about for sure.

[Guest Rob J]

I checked out the Soda Blaster on E-bay made by Eastwood. Small Portable unit for home use. Looks to be around $260. Something to think about for sure.

You had better make sure you have an air compressor up to the task, as those blasters need a serious air supply to function properly. IMO, unless you are blasting multiple cars, have an open space to blast, have the right air compressor, you'd be better off taking the car to a pro, and have it done.

[Guest REX STALLION]

On another forum.guys are having success using a razor blade scraper. I`ve never tried it but I will when stripping my `64.

[RivNut]

I've seen videos of that, let us know what you think. It would probably work okay if you can keep the blade out of the sheet metal.

[Guest onedesertdog]

I actually thought about using a putty knife, but that scraper sounds interesting. From the original paint to the top coat, the paint looks thick as my finger nail, If not thicker.

Check out that soda blaster at Habor Freight. 40# and doesn't need that much air press. to operate. Regular $299 on sale for $169.

[JZRIV]

As you are finding there is no "Easy Button" when it comes to stripping multi-layers of paint. Much of the cost of professional soda blasting is labor and equipment overhead to run the compressor. If you have multi laters of paint its going to take a longer and the cost to have it done professionally may be very undesireable if you are on a budget.

My personal opinion is the small soda blasters from Eastwood or anywhere else for that matter are best for small piece work jobs regardless of how enticing the advertisments are. And as mentioned, unless you have a commercial quality compressor you'll burn it up before you're done with a whole body and spend a fortune on soda. I've watched a pro blast with a gargantuan diesel compressor and a gun that had a 1" dia air line to it. While it removed paint effectively, it wasn't nearly as fast as I thought it would be. Abrasive media blasting is faster so some shops will use soda on the exterior surfaces and switch to abrasive for door and trunk jambs, underside of trunks and hoods etc sp speed up the process and reduce time which is cost.

Having said that IMO professional soda blasting is the best method if you have the budget. There are people who provide mobile soda blasting services as well and can come to your house.

I never liked the colossal mess that sanding creates so my personal preference is to use chemical stripper first on all the large surface areas to get 90% of it off. I've tried a couple different brands and Klean Strip KS-3 from Lowes or Home Depot seemed to work best especially for the money. They have an aircraft stripper but no one local stocked it so I haven't used it. Welcome to KleanStrip.com Then type in KS-3 in the search field

Like other methods, chemical stripping requires patience. Its a miserable task but necessary if you want to save some money and DIYS. Go slow and let the stripper do the work. I use size 0 steel wool along with a 1" and 3" putty knife for scraping. Multiple applications of stripper will be necessary then use the DA to finish it off and get along edges and tight spots. I collect the removed paint and stripper and put it on a piece of cardboard and let it air dry for a couple days until its crispy then put it in a garbage bag.

For each application it takes about 20 minutes for the striper to lift the paint plus scraping time. I could probably do a trunk lid (top side) with factory paint plus one repaint down to metal in say 1.5 to 2 hours. Just prior to scraping one section you can apply stripper to the next so that way you are always applying stripper or scraping and reduce the wasted time waiting between applications. Surprisingly the fumes from the stripper weren't nearly as bad as I expected.

Edited December 17, 2011 by JZRIV (see edit history)

[Guest onedesertdog]

Thanks for the helpful info.

You guys are a great bunch.

I'm going to try the Stripper, and maybe get that soada blaster anyway for small parts. My son has a T-Bucket he is restoring so he could probably use it also.

Taking it to bare metal sounds like the only option.

[Bleach]

With any stripping product, please use gloves and eye protection. That stuff will do a number on bare skin and can cause serious eye damage.

[RivNut]

I know this thread pertains to paint removal but I thought I'd bring up rust removal as well. I'm also curious if anyone else has seen, used, or heard of this method. It seems easy and ecologically friendly.

Ed

[Guest REX STALLION]

I know this thread pertains to paint removal but I thought I'd bring up rust removal as well. I'm also curious if anyone else has seen, used, or heard of this method. It seems easy and ecologically friendly.

Ed

I used white vinegar on Riviera exhaust hangers, submerged in an ice cream tub full.The rust was heavy but after a week I was able to scrub the rust off. I liked the tip in the video about using the POR15 product to stop the flash rusting issue.

[Don McClair]

I have used the razor blade scraper on my 1965 Riv and it worked very well. I bought a cheap plastic scraper from Home Depot. There were areas that the scraper removed the paint with virtually no effort going 2 1/2 feet or more in one pass. There were areas where I had to work at it but scraping for me only worked down to the original paint. You have to be very careful as it is easy to gouge the original paint down to bare metal. My thought is getting rid of the newer layers this way would make sanding or stripping a lot easier. I scraped my whole Riv in about two days.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Don

[Guest onedesertdog]

Thanks for the reply Don.

I've spent 2 days JUST on the hood, and barely made a dent. :eek:

I have gotten into an area where I could make a pathway by using a putty knife. As was mentioned earlier, I'm now using the stripper in conjunction with the other things. I may get a razor blade also. The stripper is not working as I had hoped. I've been using Krylon primer spray paint to cover the bare metal area's temporarily, but 2 days layer it's spotted with rust.

I'm not going to give up..................................................yet.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas, and a Safe and Healthy New Year, as well.

[superbuick]

Like Don, I stripped my 63 rivy with a razor blade. It had a couple of coats over the factory paint. I used a razor blade and with pratice it went much faster and cleaner then stipper. I then was able to DA sand to meltal.

I would highly recomend praticing with a razor scraper, it can take a 1-2 days for the whole car and the cost is under $15.

Good luck.

Steve

[65VerdeGS]

I had the same challenge on my '65. The guy that did my car hoped that he could grind down the alligatored areas (checked/cracked paint) while leaving the apparently stable areas alone. It didn't work out that way. The more he got into the car the worse it got. When I bought my car in 1983 it still sported the original Acrylic Lacquer finish from new, except for some areas where repairs had been made in the car's 18 year life. I had the car repainted once after that, using Acrylic Enamel with a Sikkens (Dutch brand) sealer between the original lacquer and the enamel. This worked for a few years but eventually the sealer broke down allowing the lacquer to bleed through the top coat.

My bodyman had to grind all the paint off the car and he did it with a grinding wheel. I tell you it sure looked strange seeing the body a bright silver color! With the paint removed the car was then primered, sanded many times and a base coat, clear coat top coat applied. Of course the rust issues (mainly at the rear quarters and trunk floor/back window) were fixed and today, nine years later the finish looks perfect with no rust coming back. I was lucky to find someone who would spend the time and loving attention to restore my car. I'm sure it helped that he told me he had always liked the early Rivieras and had a certain liking for my car that made him make an extra effort to do a good job.

Good luck with your restoration!