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| Joined: | 09-10-2012 |
| Location: | Little Chute, Wisconsin USA |
| Posts: | 435 |
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So, I spent an hour at the auto paint store, and got a lot of free advice as part of the deal (remember I am hardly a professional at this restoration stuff and the last time I did it was 25 years ago). Long story short... something I didn't even think about. He basically explained the different kinds of paint to me and told me that the 2k urethane primer I was going to use would likely lift the old lacquer finish right off the car. Oh boy. Not what I wanted to hear. The whole reason for the repaint is to get rid of the Maaco bubbles!
So, the project has altered slightly now: she will be a true bare metal restoration. Hadn't planned on it all the way through (I'm doing the "visible" panels such as doors, fenders, etc. because I have to remove the horrible Macco paint job) but now it ALL has to come off. Including the parts from the parts car.
Not horrible, but time consuming. I got most of the engine compartment done tonight, will finish tomorrow after I get a new drill (burned up my 25 year old Black and Decker tonight) and hope to finish it tomorrow. What seems to be working well is to use a pretty aggressive chemical stripper (Zinsser StripFast), let that sit for a half hour, scrape off most of the old finish (it doesn't seem to have any trouble going through most of the layers) and then hit what's left with a 3M SandBlaster disc on my drill or grinder, depending on the angle I need to hit it at.
It's always something... but in retrospect it's probably a good thing since it's forcing the engine compartment to be cleaned really well. I'm doing this with the engine still in the car, using aluminum foil to mask off anything I don't want painted. The Zinsser stripper, in addition to removing the paint, also does a fine job of removing most of the possibly 40 years worth of grease buildup. We'll see how it goes.