Hello 914 friends,

please tell me your experience, work methods and used tools to remove old paint.
I've heard a lot of different ways for examlple MPX, sand blasting, and so on but what is efficient and sparing to the sheet metal.

Soda blasting works well for removing paint and doing little damage else wise.. It does NOT remove rust. It does need to be washed off with a mild acid wash, vinegar solution or such, it doesnt harm glass trim or wiring...

Not the cheapest.

Do it yourself.. aircraft stripper ,plastic and patience.

You have a compressor,,, DA???

There are tons of threads on this site, pelican and probably many other auto sites. It's worth doing a search to get all the + & - for each method.

I'm working on my engine compartment stripping the original paint. I found that Aircraft Stripper works the best if you don't want to splurge for professional soda blasting. Oh, I tried soda blasting myself with a 50 pound HF soda blaster and I can't even tell you what a mess it makes and VERY slow progress. I also tried using 2-3 other strippers such as POR Strip (useless) and a few sold at Sears (useless as well) Aircraft Stripper is the best and twisted wire wheels. Oh and this thing: http://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-pneum...-kit-95826.html works great at removing most of the seam sealer and then Aircraft Stripper to remove the rest.

If you intend on using stripper, try furniture grade varnish remover. Basically works the same as industrial paint stripper but about 2/3 the cost.

soda blast...but it doesn't remove rust. do you really want the rust? Do you want to go back and redo something you short cut b/c at the time it seemed cost effective.

I have a collection of wire brush attachments for the drill and Dremmel tool that I use. I buy the dremmel attachments in bulk from ebay. It was my best solution considering my space constraints. When you are done for the day, you just sweep up.