Well, I finally finished prepping the car for paint. I have a local painter that has agreed to paint my car, so to save money he requested that I strip the paint down to metal. He'll do the minor body work, primer, base-coat, clear-coat. I'm suppose to take it by tomorrow (Sunday), but I'll have wait until the front passes by.

It taken me about 40 hrs to remove all of the paint. I started after work last Thursday, all day Friday (Good friday holiday), Saturday, Sunday and today.

This is the only body repair needed. It had about 1/2" of bondo at the deepest. It took me 5 hrs to strip this door. There's also some body work to be done on the rear quarter panel. After stripping I used Ospho to protect the metal, then painted a light coat of etch primer, per the painter's requirements...

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Here's why it's taken me so long to strip the car, I didn't have a large enough air tank to run the DA, so I strip everything with this electric hand drill with 3M purple sanding discs. For the next teener to be painted, I'm going to buy an electric DA sander....

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Here's an in process shot...

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After spending 10 hrs today finishing the stripping I forgot to take any pictures of the completely naked teener.... I'll take pics before I drop it off at the painters....

BTW, I'm enjoying several nice Black-n-Tan beers today and tomorrow and looking forward to doing NO WORK on the teener tomorrow...

-- Rob

Looking good!!!!

What color are you repainting it to?

Red (bahia or malaga) would be the best, in my opinion. However, a nice candy apple red metallic might be cool to (kidding, though I do love that color).

Lotsa work - nice job!

Nice work and Wow what a clean body. I found a lot more bondo when I did mine.

Black and tans yummy .
I bet you have some red boogers after that.

Pat, it's going to be the original paint, Bahia Red...

Chappy, I actually wore a painter's mask, ski mask and goggles for protection from the red dust, but did manage to get some red ear boogers....

-- Rob

Rob quote: He'll do the minor body work, primer, base-coat, clear-coat.

Rob,
I just had some paint work done on my M471 car and according to the paint supply shop, the 914 colors only come in single stage paint. I couldn't get base coat, clear coat in Tangerine. What say you?
Steve

Lookin' good, Rob! In case you do another strip job, somebody (can't remember the mfg's name) makes a sweet scotchbrite style strip disc that attaches to 4 1/2" grinders. I bought them at Lowes. They were the only thing that would take massive layers of old paint off of concrete steps.

Tell me more about the scotchbrite disc. (item number?) I've just started prepping my car for paint and looking for an easy way to strip.

tabby

Nice work Rob!

Hey Rob, that's the 3M purple discs I have on the drill, scotchbrit, I just couldn't remember the name.... BTW, I couldn't have stripped everything within the 40 hrs without them....

Tabby, I got mine from the auto body supply store, they work great. I bought a 4-pack for $40, it always seems cheaper then going to the local HD/Lowes...

-- Rob

BTDT Rob! What a PITA stripping paint. Nice job.

Sanding paint off with a DA is not all it's cracked up to be either. I found those same 3M purple disks to work pretty well actually. I have a post on here somewhere with pics and a part number for anyone that really wants it. I always wanted larger flat disks. I think Eastwood has those that may be a lot better. Haven't bought or tried them though.

Might as well take those carbs and throw them right in the trash can
YOU KNOW THE ONES I HAVE REBUILT ONCE AND THEN TUNED FOR YOU TWO WEEKS AGO.
All that dust is going to make you life miserable.

Rob,

Cars looking good! Let me know when we're ready for another " Tampa Bay Breakfest". I imagine you will have the car painted by then.

Give me a yell if you need some help. I got my flares on this week but its gonna be awhile before paint.

KP

Yea, I'm worried about the dust getting into those newly tuned and finely adjusted carbs.... I didn't realize how much dust would get into the engine compartment...

I'm going to blow the engine compartment out again, then carefully remove the filters and blow them out also....

Kev, long time no hear.... I'm hoping to have the car back together by the end of this month and I'll schedule another TBB then, hope you can make it...

-- Rob

pull the carbs!! 4 nuts per side at the top of the intakes. disconnect the throttle cable and return spring and you should be able to lift everything off in one piece. this will preserve your current setup. tape the intake openings.

k

Just curious (as I will need to strip my own project here in short order) why you chose to sand the paint off versus using a chemical stripper like aircraft stripper? My plan was to use aircraft stripper.

So true. BTDT

How do you dispose of that stuff safley?

Chuck, I actually tried both. Prior to sanding a panel, I laid down a 2 square foot section using the aircraft stripper. I then went back to sanding. I'd take a break from the sanding and scrape the aircraft stripper off. I found that it would take 3 tries to get the paint off with the stripper. With the sanding, once I hit, it went down to bare metal. I used the stripper in the corners where the sanding disc wouldn't reach. You should experiment with which ever process works for you. Either way I'm exhausted and won't do another paint stripping for at least a month...

-- Rob

Rob,

The car looks great! I was thinking of the aircraft stripper to keep dust down. Not sure which is worse, paint dust or paint stripping fumes.

I spent the weekend pulling the interior from my 73, chipping the bituminous from the floorpan and surveying the amount of rust repair that will need to be done. I thought my pan was bad because it was spongy. Turns out the pan is in pretty good shape overall. It was spongy because it is only attached to the rear firewall in a couple of spots as the bottom two inches of it is gone in both corners. From the looks of things, water was coming in the entire length of the rear window, along the longs from the engine compartment and in through the corners of both side windows. This is my first restoration and it looks like it will a lot of

I found a spare one out in the garage. It is called: Gator Grit Paint and Rust Remover , #9483, 4 1/2" x 7/8" by Ali Industries. I got mine at Lowes, but I saw it listed on an Ace Hardware site as well. I found that they work best and last longer if you use light pressure. If you lean on it hard, it goes away pretty quick. Link to Mfg. below. Item is at very bottom of the webpage:

http://www.gatorgrit.com/productpower.htm#

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I have no realtionship to the vendor, just sharing something that worked for me.

That's a great advertisement for that drill!

I had a Makita like that, and I abused the shit out it for like 15 years. It recently died and I almost teared up throwing it out.

Well, I've had a couple of very busy weeks. After the owner checked out the car, he wanted to charge me an extra 50% over the original quote. Well, this was beyond my budget, so I took the car back to my shop. I decided to repair, primer and paint the car myself. I spent the last several weeks repairing, bondoing and prepping the car. Here's the first shots after several layers of 2k primer. BTW, it takes me about 4 hours to mask the car off. 2 weeks ago I put the first layer of primer on the car. After putting on a tack coat, I began to put a more solid layer on, but the gun started spitting out the paint and dust bunnies. I immediately stopped and cleaned the gun. The paint had started to solidify in the gun. I opened the paint and began stirring the paint. When I pulled the stick out, the paint began hardening. I checked with the auto paint store and evidently the paint was bad. I was able to put enough paint down to realize that I needed to do more work. I completed the work this week and shot several layers of 2k on today. I'm planning to sand it down and see if I need more work (which I suspect I will).

Anyway, here's a shot of the car in light gray primer....

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BTW, I'm enjoying several Ichiban beers....

-- Rob

One of these days you will be able to finish this and drive it huh?
Looks like this will be a winner.

Awesome! That brings back great memories of my current chassis.

Throw down a light contrasting guide coat with some cheap spray paint. Sand it off and now you can find low and high spots. If it sands off fast or back down to metal, its high. If the guide coat is still lurking where you just sanded, its low. Do that a couple of times with the 2K and you will have a pretty F'n straight car.

Well, it's been 4 weeks since my last posting. As I suspected, I needed to do more body work. I finished the body work last week. After putting up the plastic around my carport, I decided to send the car to an auto paint shop. Everyday after I got to the shop, some portion of the plastic had pull down. We have started into the sever afternoon thunderstorm period in FL so I figured I wouldn't/shouldn't try to paint the outside of the car with 90+ degrees and 90+ humidity. Here's some shots of the car outside of the auto paint shop. I'm expecting them to finish painting the car this week and I'll pick it up next Saturday. I'll post pic next weekend...

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-- Rob

How about a propane torch and scraper? Then finish with mechanical device as above?

I really think stipping is overkill. I'm sure it depends on the condition, but unless the paint is just flaking or peeling off, I say leave the factory paint as a foundation while aggressively grinding and stripping any rust areas. That factory stuff is pretty good.

I agree Thomas, but this car had a very poor respray, it was peeling in several places. Also, the original painter insisted that the car be stripped to bare metal (because of obvious poor repaired sections), repaired, prepped, then they would repaint on a very good foundation...

-- Rob

I like the 3M Bristle discs over the scotchbrite discs. But I don't like mechanical stripping as well as chemical. I do mask the seams and gaps so the chemical stripper doesn't get where you don't want it to go, and then mechanically strip the edges with the bristle discs.

I prefer the stripper method. I have found if you lay out the stripper in one heavy coat, in single brush strokes (don't go brush over it a second time), and then cover the wet stripper with a piece of heavy clear plastic, it works very well. Leave it alone for at least a half hour. This is the problem I've seen with chemical stripping, is impatience and trying to "help" the stripper. Let it work and then do it again if needed. Less time and mess. The dust is worse than the stripper sludge.

I lay down cardboard and masking paper in the drop zone, and throw that away as I go.

Painting is done. Here's the first pics of the car seeing the sunshine for the first time with the new paint.... They still have to clean up some of the over spray and check everything but overall I'm very pleased... I'm picking up the car Saturday morning and taking it back to my shop to finish putting everything back together...

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-- Rob

Wow, looks good

Oh my heck Rob it looks slick! I'm going to have to talk to Joe about making a road trip down there towards the end of the year.

Once the body is stripped, do you need to prime it imediately? What about flash rust? When I took one fender down to metal, it started to hase over within a few hours.

DJM, once you expose the metal to air it will flash rust, the higher the humidity, the greater/quicker the rust. I've used Ospho on the bare metal and it has helped keep the flash rust under control here in central FL for about 2 weeks. But, I recommend that the etch primer be put on the exposed metal as soon as possible...

Thanks guys for the compliments...

-- Rob

Nice!!!!

Can't wait to see it all back together and on the road...

Thanks Allan, I've been watching your progress and your's has turned out excellent....

-- Rob

That's beautiful. Nothing like a freshly painted car, especially a 914.

Rob, looks sweet, where'd ya have it done???

I'll need paint one day too.

Nice, Rob!

Thank you! I'm enjoying this thread. You've done a great job.

Rob,

The car looks great! Whats the color code on that paint? I've got the flairs on and my car and it should be going to paint in about 2 weeks. I'll drop you a pic when its done. Do we have another Tampa Bay Breakfest coming up soon?

KP

Hey Paul, believe it or not, but I took it to Maaco's in Brandon....

Kev, I'm hoping to get the car back together in the next 2 weeks, then schedule another TBB, I'll send everyone an e-mail and post here....

Gint and Felix, it's sooo cool to have this car almost finished. I know it will never be finished until I sell it...

Thanks again everyone for the compliments.

-- Rob