Stripping?
 

No, not the fun kind that involves numerous dollar bills. I just got quoted to have all my body panels media blasted at $1500:eek: I was mostly curious to see what it was going to be, but it definitely confirms that I will be going the manual stripping route.

Before I dive into buying abrasives, I was hoping to hear from those who have done this already, and what has worked well for them. The underside of my cab and most of the body panels have this thick tar like coating on them. I have a feeling that removing this coating down to bare metal is going to be the most difficult.

I'm open to suggestions on abrasives, grinding tools, chemical strippers, and even blasting at home.

thanks.

Re: Stripping?
 

It's removing the Tar like substance (old undercoating) that runs up the cost when you have someone else do it. It has to be scraped as you can't normally blast it off. I've spent a number of hours with an industrial strength putty knife attacking that stuff. You have to be real careful if you use heat on it as it usually burns real well and catches fire easily as it is often primarily tar on the older cars and trucks.
The material used may reflect in the cost too plus the place I am planning on taking my cab to only lets one guy do the sheet metal body parts. The flunkies sandblast the heavy duty stuff with multiple coats of paint and what not but only one experienced guy does the sheet metal parts there.

Re: Stripping?
 

You can buy a product from Eastwood, I believe it's call Under-gone hat you spray it over the under coating and let it work, them scape it off. For the paint, you can use aircraft stripper or use stripping discs on a grinder.
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Re: Stripping?
 

Hot Rod Rookie, not sure where you live in Sac. but here in Shingle Springs TNT powercoating and abrasive blasting they did all the parts for the Suburban at about half that cost... Owner's name is Lance give him a call and see what he can do for you.. tell him Wayne told you about him.. if you get the Cruisin' News he's in there..530 677-6360
We had tar all over the bottom and fender wells of the suburban and like was said you can take it off with a little heat, we used a heat gun and it worked great and didn't catch anything on fire...it doesn't take much heat and will help in cutting down the cost of blasting..

Re: Stripping?
 

For sure, the place that quoted me was pretty well established and really emphasized the blasting technique and media they used would be a cold blast that would cause zero warpage.

Any preference on stripping disks? 80 grit DA paper seems to take forever, flap wheels on a grinder seem to run hot, http://www.eastwood.com/poly-x-paint...cup-style.html I've heard a lot of talk about these disks but have never used them. How long do they hold up? How well do they work on removing layers of paint down to bare steel?

Thanks for the heads up on the blasting contact. Do you know what kind of media he uses? My concern would be the use of something too aggressive that would cause warpage in the sheet metal. I think I will get the O/A torch out when it comes time to strip the coating. I better get some chemical cartridges for the respirator though.

Re: Stripping?
 

hotrodrookie,

My cab costed me 250 inside and out to be media blasted. If you need to remove the undercoating. I removed mine with a heatgun and a puddy knife it came off easy peesy. The heat gun softened it up enough to scrape it off with a puddy knife. I then used lacquer thinner to clean up all the residue that was left.

Re: Stripping?
 

Wow, this setup is impressive. If I could only rent one of these blasters.

Re: Stripping?
 

the guy i used sandblasted all my parts with zero warpage
when asked about warping he said it's thick metal and he knows what he's doing :D
he must have, zero warpage
i have about half what you were quoted in doing all my parts

use a heat gun and a putty knife to get the undercoating off
a little heat makes quick work of undercoating

it still involves lots of dollar bills :D:D:D

Re: Stripping?
 

I'm not sure what he uses, it's like a very light sand and i've never had a warped panel..