What's your favorite way to strip a Z?

steve77

How about 'pay some else to do it' for a choice:classic:

Yeah, I think teh poll should be "LEAST favourite way to..." as I seem to hear more horror stories than happy stories!

i find chemical the best way if you want every thing i also use 3m clean and strip wheels when stripping find that and chemical work best for me

blasting is excellent for engine bays and hard to get at places but you have to get a professional if you want to do outer panel with blasting due to the possiblity to stretch the metal

mick

Good poll, Steve!!

Not an entirely unselfish poll...look what I have been playing with in my garage this week..... NO! That is NOT a silver Z!

steve77

There was (from the top down):

Burgundy

grey primer

Burgundy (Yes, it had been painted the same colour twice)

grey primer

factory orange

factory primer

Oh, and did I mention practically the entire car was skimmed in Bondo? Some of it OVER the other paint jobs. Learned a couple things about these cars:

I alway thought there was only one leaded joint in the car. Didn't know the lower windshield area was leaded too.

Always wondered why the cowl rusted. Seemed like a weird place--out in the middle of nowhere--to rust. IT'S THOSE TWO PIECES OF FOAM GLUED TO THE UNDERSIDE!!! What a stupid idea! Is that for soundproofing? Total rust trap.

steve77

My three-year-old comes down today and says, "I like the silver Z." Got me to thinking.....Why not just clear-coat it?

hehe

steve77

What's your favorite way to strip a Z?:tapemouth

For me it would be that whole list other then paint over it and dip. The only reason for not going dip is $$$$$$$$ :sleepy: I still have not seen anyone around here that can bake or cook a whole body shell clean. But that would get into big $$$$$ again.

Its all good. At this point I have ALOT more time then money anyway.

I chose Torch/Scrape only because I used a modified version of that technique.

Basically, I used a 500W halogen work light and a putty knife. This works especially great on the rubberized undercoatings, but will also work on most paints, and the bondo underneath the paint!

Set protective grill of the work light up against the surface (this should put the bulb and glass of the light about 2" from the surface). Let sit for 1-2 minutes. Take said putty knife and push into the paint. Watch the paint, undercoating, bondo, whatever, roll up and fall to the floor.

Make clean up nicer too. You just use a broom and you don't have all the nice little chemical puddles all over the place getting on your shoes where you can track into the house on the wife's precious carpet! (Don't ask....)

Another nice benefit of this method...you can stop at any time. Unlike chemicals, that will dry up and harden if you walk away with them left on the surface.

Check here:

http://www.z-point.nl/project.htm

That's what Z-point did. I wonder if such heating is safe - worried about a structural changes in metal. Hope it is.

I just found a place to dip my car Saturday! Revivations in Wauchula, Florida dips cars in a three part process. Revivations is sister to Pioneer Restorations and the preliminary estimate was $1200 to dip the entire body including doors fenders, deck and hood.

The first dip is acidic stripper and it softens the paint and undercoating. Then the car is pressure washed to remove all the crap the dip softened. The third process is full submersion in an alkaline electrolytic solution that neutralizes any acid left on the car and DC current is run through to separate ferrous ions (rust) from the metal. They claim no actual metal is removed during the process and it won't harm plastic, lead, or chrome. The process gets all the rust off and you start over from bare naked metal. They dip everything from suspension parts to gas tanks.

If you are worried about the metal rusting right away, they offer an OSPHO dip and then encourage you to step right next door to Pioneer's full restoration facilities.

I would appreciate any feedback from someone who has delt with them.

I'm kinda with mack... when I have several hours to work on it, I put on a massive coat of stripper, let it do it's work and then roll it out into the driveway and hose it off. But, during the week, when I may only have an hour or so in the evening, I break out the torch and hit a few spots. My wallpaper scraper works really great too. What an awesome tool! Doesn't scrape the galvanising off either.

I hope everyone is being honest... I hope people who have never stripped a car are not just clicking "beadblast" because it looks easy. SURE, we would all love to pay someone else to take the thing and strip it, but logistics, timing and budget get in the way!

steve77