I bought a camaro that needs to be stripped and repainted,But I have no experience doing this.Could you please help me with where I should start.And what is the best way to trip the car down to the medal,and get it ready to painted again?
stripping
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Hello,
Stripping a whole car can take a long time. At school I am currently stripping a hood and 2 fenders and it took me around 5 hours and it is not finished.
You should wear some protection before starting because paint stripper is pretty dangerous on the skin. Always use glasses and gloves. You could also use a shirt with long sleeve so you won't burn you arms.
The first thing to do before starting is to clean the car from dust and grease/oil. That way the paint stripper will work better. After the car is all clean, use some 50-80 grit sand paper and sand the whole car just to scratch the paint. You don't need to remove paint with it, it is just to help the stripper get inside the paint. You should put some plastic on the floor to catch all the paint so you won't have to clean the floor.
After you sanded, apply the paint stripper generously on 1 part of the car. Don't apply on a big part because it will probably dry and make the process of removing the paint harder. Once you have applied the stripper on the part, put a sheet of plastic (polythene) over it so the stripper won't dry and it will work much better. When you let it work, you can apply stripper on another part to save some time later.
When the stripper has worked for 10-20 minutes (depending on the brand), you can start removing paint with a metal scrapper. . You start over the 2 last steps until you have stripped the piece to metal. When it is on metal just clean the car with water to dissolve the stripper. Don't forget to dry the car or it will rust in no time.
Just prime the car after this. For the kind of primer I can't really help you because I pretty new to painting and there is a lot of kinds you can choose from. I hope it helped you.
Stripping a whole car can take a long time. At school I am currently stripping a hood and 2 fenders and it took me around 5 hours and it is not finished.
You should wear some protection before starting because paint stripper is pretty dangerous on the skin. Always use glasses and gloves. You could also use a shirt with long sleeve so you won't burn you arms.
The first thing to do before starting is to clean the car from dust and grease/oil. That way the paint stripper will work better. After the car is all clean, use some 50-80 grit sand paper and sand the whole car just to scratch the paint. You don't need to remove paint with it, it is just to help the stripper get inside the paint. You should put some plastic on the floor to catch all the paint so you won't have to clean the floor.
After you sanded, apply the paint stripper generously on 1 part of the car. Don't apply on a big part because it will probably dry and make the process of removing the paint harder. Once you have applied the stripper on the part, put a sheet of plastic (polythene) over it so the stripper won't dry and it will work much better. When you let it work, you can apply stripper on another part to save some time later.
When the stripper has worked for 10-20 minutes (depending on the brand), you can start removing paint with a metal scrapper. . You start over the 2 last steps until you have stripped the piece to metal. When it is on metal just clean the car with water to dissolve the stripper. Don't forget to dry the car or it will rust in no time.
Just prime the car after this. For the kind of primer I can't really help you because I pretty new to painting and there is a lot of kinds you can choose from. I hope it helped you.
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16,459 Posts
First off, does it REALLY need to be stripped?
I can not emphasize enough, DO ONLY ONE PANEL AT A TIME! There is nothing, but NOTHING, I mean NOTHING , that is more overwhelming in auto restoration than a complete bare metal body sitting there in a newbes garage.
It has been the death sentence of many cars. I have personally seen MANY cars over the years that met their death or at least ended up with a new owner because the "stripper" found himself overwhelmed.
I did an Austin Healy Bug Eye Sprite a number of years ago because of this. The owner had stripped the complete car, it was so overwhelming that it sat for a number of years until it was pushed out in the back yard! It was bought by my customer for a song and brought to me. Be paid me some good money to get it back in shape.
Another comes to mind, in a neighborhood near me there is a 22 Buick Roadster that was bought new by the mans granddad who has it now. It was a decent old car until some MORON moved in next door to him and talked him into "restoring" it and stripped the whole darn thing to bare metal. That was about 20 years ago and the car is still in pieces in the garage.
Do one panel at a time, strip it, epoxy prime it, do the body work, urethane prime it, block it, re-urethane prime it and put it aside. Then move onto the next part. Of course it is a good idea to align all the panels just in case some work needs to be done to make them fit well. Do that all first then strip each part one at a time.
I can not emphasize enough, DO ONLY ONE PANEL AT A TIME! There is nothing, but NOTHING, I mean NOTHING , that is more overwhelming in auto restoration than a complete bare metal body sitting there in a newbes garage.
It has been the death sentence of many cars. I have personally seen MANY cars over the years that met their death or at least ended up with a new owner because the "stripper" found himself overwhelmed.
I did an Austin Healy Bug Eye Sprite a number of years ago because of this. The owner had stripped the complete car, it was so overwhelming that it sat for a number of years until it was pushed out in the back yard! It was bought by my customer for a song and brought to me. Be paid me some good money to get it back in shape.
Another comes to mind, in a neighborhood near me there is a 22 Buick Roadster that was bought new by the mans granddad who has it now. It was a decent old car until some MORON moved in next door to him and talked him into "restoring" it and stripped the whole darn thing to bare metal. That was about 20 years ago and the car is still in pieces in the garage.
Do one panel at a time, strip it, epoxy prime it, do the body work, urethane prime it, block it, re-urethane prime it and put it aside. Then move onto the next part. Of course it is a good idea to align all the panels just in case some work needs to be done to make them fit well. Do that all first then strip each part one at a time.
Thanks for the advice,I can see where this could be very frustrating if I tried to do the whole car at one time.So I will keep in mind,the fact that I should only work on one piece at a time.And also that I can not be in a hurry to do it because I see that it is going to take some time and Lot of work,to get done.
I have already given myself a two or three year time period to complete the car
I have already given myself a two or three year time period to complete the car
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