5 replies to this topic

[pandhandj]

All,

my '72 mkIII is now officailly off the road for a rebuild (woo hoo!). However, i cant make up my mind on how to strip the paint!

I have read (and re-read) the painting guide on here, but i still dont know which way to go.

I want to totally strip the shell so here are my thoughts:

Dipping - good removal of everything, but expensive and i dont know any where in Scotland that does it.

Media blasting - not so good at rust removal, but cheaper than dipping and again struggling to find somewhere in cental scotland.

Manual (chemical and scrapping) - dirty and time consuming - how long will it take me? will the shell rust as i work through it?

Any advice greatly recieved,

cheers,

pandhandj

[Big Guns]

Hi. It depends on how much you value your time but I would get a decent sander and go for it. That's what I did and it worked a treat.

[cooper_shaz]

Dual action sander and sanding discs are the way to go, then some chemical stripper on awkward bits.

Is there any reason you want to totally strip it back? exposed metal will start to rust in minutes. If the paint is good then key it down and just go back to metal on rusted bits.

Be sure to treat the exposed metal, I use metal ready POR15 from www.frost.co.uk, fantastic stuff and I have used it from Minis to Bentleys to treat new/exposed metal.

Media blastig, is great but can be harsh and lead to panel warping if not done correctly.

hemical dipping, the closest place i know that will take a shell is in Leeds, you can get a mini shell in a long wheel base van, so 4 hours trip each way..

[dave21478]

Paint strip discs.....




Cuts through paint in seconds without damaging the metal surface as sanding discs can. Create a lot of dust, but are very easy to use. Pretty hard wearing, but they wear away quickly when doing edges and sharp curves - so best for flat panels.

I part-stripped my van with 3 of these. I would allow 5 or 6 discs to do a whole mini shell.

[ANON]

get some paramose non waterbased paint stripper.
discs take forever, too much mess and you can warp panels if you aren't careful.

[pandhandj]

All,

thanks a lot for your opions - think I'll try to do it myself - a combination of sanding, discing and chemical stripping.

The reason i want to go back to bare metal was to check the shell over for rust. Should be easy enoygh on the upper shell, but the underside and floor are covered in god knows how may layers of something thick and horrible - i also wanted to see just what repair work has already been carried out to the floor.

Is it a good idea to sand back a section of shell, clean it up and then etch prime it, before moving onto another area?

Again, thanks for your time,

pandhandj