so..this week im taking off all the paint hopefully...whats the best way to do it....sanding? chemical? torch?

i dont want to damage the filler too much because it looks somewhat good...and im not at all good with doing filler or sheetmetal work, ill learn a little, but i dont want to tackle the whole car

so..any suggestions?

The best way to strip paint without damaging the filler is to use a DA sander. Heat and chemicals will soften old fillers.

Chemicals are best, but they play havoc with your filler.. chemicals are the way I strip anything...

... including a woman(*1).


M

(*1.)Goat

I used methylene chloride aka aircraft stripper. It works really well. I stripped the entire car to bare metal in 2 weekends.

A tip for aircraft stripper: cover it with a plastic drop cloth after applying to trap the oxygen and let the stripper work longer without evaporating.

As they've said. Chemical stripper WILL mess up the filler. If you use these plan on taking it ALL to bare metal and redoing the bodywork.

This would be a prime opportunity to learn to do bodywork. (Minor work isn't very hard at all and you will get a feeling of accomplishment from it!) What color are you painting the car? A light color will had imperfect bodywork well whereas dark will show every flaw.

Exactly. I should have specified: i took my car down to bare metal. Thats how the body shop wanted it. They didnt want to risk their stuff not sticking to old filler.

I have been stripping the body panels of my stripper with a chisel. Get it under the paint and push. 1"wide blade goes pretty quick. did a whole hood in 20 minutes.

Hey you asked what we do and that's how I do it. Prolly use aircraft stripper in the corners. and funky stuff.