This will be my step by step driveway strip and paint thread. This may not be the way everyone will do it, but this is the way I will do mine. If you like it, you can do it this way also. If not, then you can take it to a body shop and pay $3k to $5k for a paint job. You could also do different variations and run the cost up. I will post what I spend on this entire process. Some have said its like hitting your self in the head with a hammer, ok, this will be my first smack in the head.


First shot, before.

Your actually going to do it in the driveway as aposed to in the garage?


Should be interesting.

What color?

QUOTE (Andyrew @ Mar 7 2005, 10:42 PM)

What color?

Andrew,

Scott is color blind.......he only see's yeller

First application of the chemical stripper. Try not to breathe the fumes and dont do this wearing shorts. Splatter will get to your legs. You let it set for about 15 minutes and then using a scrapper, you scrape everywhere you applied the stripper. You will need to do this a couple of times if there is a lot of paint on the car.

Please check your town's ordinance for this first. You'd be surprised at what you can get a fine for. Once your neighbors find out what you're doing someone's going to get worried about their new car getting oversprayed in turn signal orange. Also, another thought is to just do sanding and primer and let a professional body shop spray the color coat. My neighbor did that with his truck and it only cost about 1K and it looked awesome. Also, if you have access to a garage, you'll most likely do a better job with it as you can jack up the car and comfortably reach the bottom half. In some body shops you'll see that they use lifts to get the car at a comfortable height and sometimes even use shop chairs that are on casters. Have fun! I've always wanted to do this too.

Second coat of stripper, same as the first. However, where ever there is bondo, you will need to remove it all the way. Do not try to just smooth it out and paint over it. The bondo will absorb the stripper and ruin your nice new paint job down the road. Besides, we are going to remove the dents before the primer goes on. You want the least amount of bondo on the car as possible. 1/8" max. With the paint off, you will easily see any and all bondo on the car. Be sure to get all of it off. Places I thought had bondo didnt have any, places I didnt know there was any, there was a lot. Some of it was way thicker than it should have been.

Indecently, the stripper is neutralized in water so when you get all done, hose the car off really well. If you let the stripper stay on too long, it will start to harden and will be difficult to remove. So keep a wet rag handy to wipe off the car when you are done with that panel. I am only doing the door and the rear quarter this round. Tomorrow I will do the front fender and hood and the other front fender. If I get on a roll, I may get the whole car done. Then I get to do the body work. The rear deck is being replaced and the sail panels will be stripped and painted to match the car. Which is why I didn't remove them. I will be removing them tomorrow along with all the other removable parts like trim and lenses.

QUOTE (skline @ Mar 7 2005, 11:06 PM)

Indecently, the stripper is neutralized in water so when you get all done, hose the car off really well. If you let the stripper stay on too long, it will start to harden and will be difficult to remove. So keep a wet rag handy to wipe off the car when you are done with that panel. I am only doing the door and the rear quarter this round. Tomorrow I will do the front fender and hood and the other front fender. If I get on a roll, I may get the whole car done. Then I get to do the body work. The rear deck is being replaced and the sail panels will be stripped and painted to match the car. Which is why I didn't remove them. I will be removing them tomorrow along with all the other removable parts like trim and lenses.

Scott,

What colors has the car been? I see white and green. And a little red.

Wow! That stuff works great! Does it remove facial wrinkles too?

Lisa

oo this is going to be good..i plan on painting my car hopefully this summer, so make sure you give me good detail skline!

Scott, keep it up! I would like to see how other people do this. I have painted cars and lots of car parts before. Sometimes early in the morning before the bugs come out etc. But always in a garage, well, once outside an entire VW Bug. It actually turned out really good.

Usually I will do like a hood or fender or something inside the garage, doors closed and a fan blowing out with the big doors up a couple of inches. Works pretty good.

Hmm, sniffen resin, sniffen paint.... No wonder I am

QUOTE (maf914 @ Mar 8 2005, 08:29 AM)

What colors has the car been? I see white and green. And a little red.

Car was tagged Delphi Green with a really bad white spray job over it. The red would be the factory primer on metal parts.

QUOTE (skline @ Mar 8 2005, 02:06 AM)

Indecently, the stripper is neutralized in water so when you get all done, hose the ... off really well. If you let the stripper stay on too long, it will start to harden and will be difficult to remove. So keep a wet rag handy to wipe off the ... when you are done with that .... I am only doing the ... and the rear quarter this round. If I get on a roll, I may get the whole ... done. Then I get to do the body work. . I will be removing them tomorrow along with all the other removable parts

I edited your post a little to make it more 914Club-style. Replace all the "..." with "stripper".

Cole

I think Slits is right, the red seems like a filler primer of some sort. It was under the factory green. Along with some geen filler of some sort. Like nothing I have ever seen before. I wonder if the factory used bondo to smooth the cars a little before painting? The rest of the bondo on the car is normal pink stuff, but there are some spots that have a light green filler masking body imperfections.

On a more serious note, this looks to be a cool thread! Thanks for sacrificing your car for the rest of us!
With teener guys having such a reputation for cheapness, I can't believe you're the first to post this!

Good luck!

Cole

All Scott has to worry about it the gathering of the "glue sniffers" that will congragate around his driveway, getting high off the aromatic dryers in the paint

Hey Scott, wanna do mine in Paisley?

"Are you going to San Francisco,
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair....."

BTW...if you haven't already....have the car registered in YOUR name. When the local code enforcement or AQMD weenie comes by that will be the first thing he asks for. It IS legal to paint your own car but if any overspray goes on another person's property....

Painting another person's car can be considered a bidness or overspray gets ya a "yer not listening citation".

Also...if there is a water heater in the garage turn it off if using paint in there with the door closed or sectioned off with plastic. That will be an ignition source.

Personal protection while spraying the paint....check for isocyanates in the paint....not good if only using a filter mask. You need OUTSIDE supplied air or an SCBA.

QUOTE (mikez @ Mar 8 2005, 09:43 AM)

BTW...if you haven't already....have the car registered in YOUR name. When the local code enforcement or AQMD weenie comes by that will be the first thing he asks for. It IS legal to paint your own car but if any overspray goes on another person's property.... Painting another person's car can be considered a bidness or overspray gets ya a "yer not listening citation". Also...if there is a water heater in the garage turn it off if using paint in there with the door closed or sectioned off with plastic. That will be an ignition source. Personal protection while spraying the paint....check for isocyanates in the paint....not good if only using a filter mask. You need OUTSIDE supplied air or an SCBA.

Hah, I sent in the DMV form....it's all Scott's problem now....his neighbor's Beemer is gonna look good in yellow

Speaking of those damn change of ownership forms.....DMV is loose and free with those things. IF THEY don't get them or lose them...they hound you for the fees...they even threatened a neighbor with a state tax lien....

Keep a copy and/or send them in certified

I can't believe you're painting a car in the driveway. I'd NEVER think of doing that......







And, a picture of my own dumb ass...



Later,
Tom

What brand oh stripper are you using? Ugmo needs a bath in it!! PO used that nice faux stone paint in BOTH trunks...
I am going spray in the garage with a home made air exchanger. Then I can really use the " I Forgot" Excuse!

Sometimes stripper can remove bondo too. Scott, do you try to scrape the bondo off or wire wheel it or ???

Looks like a cool thread.

BTW are you going to remove the sail panel trim?? I would expect the stripper to attack the vinyl and anodized aluminum.

QUOTE (dinomium @ Mar 8 2005, 11:59 AM)

What brand oh stripper are you using? Ugmo needs a bath in it!! PO used that nice faux stone paint in BOTH trunks... I am going spray in the garage with a home made air exchanger. Then I can really use the " I Forgot" Excuse!

I've used two brands of chemical stripper (Aircraft Paint Stripper 495-1 by Morton and Tal-Strip II by Mar-Hyde) and they both worked great. I got the Morton stuff from an automotive paint supplier and the Mar-Hyde from a FLAPS. You can spray the stuff, but it actually works better to brush it on.

QUOTE (Mrs. K @ Mar 8 2005, 07:33 AM)

Wow! That stuff works great! Does it remove facial wrinkles too? Lisa

Sure.....what do you think Michael Jackson used to become white

QUOTE (jkeyzer @ Mar 8 2005, 12:00 PM)

Sometimes stripper can remove bondo too. Scott, do you try to scrape the bondo off or wire wheel it or ??? Looks like a cool thread. BTW are you going to remove the sail panel trim?? I would expect the stripper to attack the vinyl and anodized aluminum.

I found the stripper will remove thin coats of bondo, but it was much easier to use a wire cup brush on my grinder to get the larger/deeper areas off. The stripper will soften the bondo slightly, allowing the wire brush to really dig in.

"driveway paint"


i ought to try this in palo alto...

any opinions on the Mar Hyde epoxy primers?

scotts progress:
k, Second day of working on the car and its not even noon yet. I got the car pretty much stripped of bolt on stuff. Found rust in some places I didnt expect but should have and no rust where I thought there would be. So good and bad. It will all need to be fixed. I am open to suggestions on the rust repair that needs to be done in the front trunk gutter. Pics to follow. Here is the nose, I still have to remove the fogs and horns.

Front trunk, no rust!! Yeah

Rear trunk, you can hardly tell but the back lip is not as it should be, I have pulled it out a little but it still needs more. I have a new deck lid for it and it must fit right.

Driver side sail panel, I almost expected rust here and on the other side. Lucky me!!

Passenger side sail panel, no rust here either. I like that.

The rust I need to fix, not sure how yet, but I will figure out something, cant leave it there. Any suggestions?

More rust to repair

Drivers side rust in channel

A naked rear!!!

Thanks Aaron, saved me some time.

Shoot, I wish i would of used stripper for my car. Mine had like a half and inch of paint on it. I foolishly sanded the whole car down to bare metal. It took soooo long to do. I feel like an idiot.

End of 2nd day results. My goal is to have this thing in primer by the weekend. Work permitting. This is the end of the day after one whole application over most of the car. The passenger side is the one I started yesterday so it has 2 applications with the exception of the front fender. I did everything but the headlights and lower front. Tomorrow is another day. Its a lot like work, I had forgotten what it took to do it last time. This is a nasty reminder. The fumes are terrible, the stuff splatters on your arms and hands and you realize it pretty quick. Tomorrow I will remove the wipers and fog and horns and do the rest and then go over the whole car again and then with a wire brush and then start sanding the whole car. Once that is done I will start taking dents out. Oh fun.

scott! you rock man!

More yet to come. Like this. Might as well see what it looks like as it gets done. More bondo I didnt know about.

The hood I thought was perfect.

when can you do mine?

At least there was no damage in the back

Id be happy to assist you with it but I am thinking this will be my last one I do. Its really hard on the back scraping the whole car top to bottom. I will leave it for you young guys to do all the scraping and sanding.

Insert old man in wheelchair smiley here.

Is the gray stuff Bondo? I was under the impression Bondo was a peach-ish colour... Though I had a piece of paint fleck off of one of my other cars that had some white crap attached to it that my friend said was Bondo: he's pretty knowledgeable...

It's so cool that you can do that in your driveway, though those paint chips in the driveway make me nervous. I'm no enviro-nut, but I sure wouldn't want that crap getting in the groundwater. I don't know if y'all worry 'bout that sort of thing where you are, but where I'm from, ground water's what you drink! Also gotta watch out for the ducks and coons and whatnot. I'm sure you've got it covered.

Cole

QUOTE (joe buckle @ Mar 8 2005, 09:35 AM)

QUOTE (Mrs. K @ Mar 8 2005, 07:33 AM) Wow!  That stuff works great!  Does it remove facial wrinkles too?  :lol: Lisa  :clap: Sure.....what do you think Michael Jackson used to become white

Lisa

Looks like you have been one busy boy there Scott! Looks like you are making nice progress! Good job!

Lisa

Yes Cole, we worry about it here too. The gutters drain to the ocean and the last thing I would want is to be swimming in paint chips. The mess is swept up and put into the hazardous waste trash can the city provides for us.
As for the grey and red and pink and even the light green stuff at the bottom rear is all body filler of some type or another. It will all have to come out.

QUOTE (skline @ Mar 8 2005, 06:59 PM)

Yes Cole, we worry about it here too. The gutters drain to the ocean and the last thing I would want is to be swimming in paint chips. The mess is swept up and put into the hazardous waste trash can the city provides for us.

You know you live in LA when the city gives you a hazardous waste trash can!!!

Up here if they know you are out in the yard spraying a can of B12 they will send in the black helicopters!

ahh yes, good old stripper. The grey is primer applied before the white was put on. the pink, green and blue would be stuff that we would call "bondo" or filler. IM alittle further than that, doing body work now. Mine had been stripped once before, and its been sprayed with self etching primer-green- and then some filler primer-grey.

i would say that maybe your quarter was resprayed green at some point before someone painted it white. I doubt the factory would have used that much bondo.

This is an awesome thread. I'm starting the stripping process this weekend, so this'll come in REAL handy. Yesterday I almost asked the same question about a 'how-to' thread, but I'm REAL glad you beat me to the punch!

I was going to sand the whole thing down with 80-grit, but this looks a lot 'safer' than that.

How long do I need to let the stripper sit on the paint? I was thinking of waking up at like 5:30 to apply the first coat...get a shower and go back to bed for a few hours...then get up and start scraping. I've got 2 coats of paint to get through and I'm SURE a fair bit of filler.

Banging out the rear-pass fender is going to be a treat. The f$%king thing shrunk up more than I'd planned when I was re-welding it back into place.

Actually, the stripper only needs to set for about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how strong it is. You can actually hear the paint seperating from the car one coat at a time. It will most likely take 2 or 3 applications to get the bulk of it off. If you leave it on too long, it will dry and wont scrape off as easy. Only do one section at a time as it will dry before you get to the other side. The most I have done at one time is a door and a fender or a hood and fender and that was pushing it. Once you start with the chemicals, you need to go all the way to metal. There will still be some sanding when you get done with the stripper.

Have you tried putting thick saran wrap on top to keep the stripper from cooking/drying off?

That does work but I didnt want to make a bigger mess than it already makes. Thats just one more thing I would have to throw away. But yes Mike, that does work pretty good.

Scott, do you have a pic of the scraper(s) you're using?

I have a couple, they are just common putty knives. I have a wide one about 2" and a narrow one about 1/2" for places like gutters around trunks and small areas. When I say common, not the real flimsy one, these are pretty stout. Keep them sharp and they cut pretty fast.