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

I stripped mine using chemical stripper. It was very easy. Some don't use bead blasting because it can heat the body panel causing it to warp and the Z doesn't have thick sheet metal.

I'm stripping thw 260 with chemical stripper. This was a budget based decision as to have it media blasted was going to cost me >AUS2K. It's nowhere near as painful as I was led to believe and I retain control.

Thanks for the rotisserie plans KMACK. I'm going to strip some of the undercoating before I haul it off to the dippers.

There is a company here in western NY called NY Strip. They use a high-volume, low pressure plastic bead blast, so no metal warping or stretching. It won't take out rust or body filler i guess, but does a nice job on paint removal. They quoted about $700US for a Z sized body, and will epoxy prime for another 5 or 600.

Eventually that's where my 73 will go, i'll let everyone know how it works out.

Well, from my experience the past couple of evenings...the torch ans stiff putty knife works pretty good on undercoating. Some places it is almost 1/2" thick!!! Unbelievable. Maybe my car can lose a few pounds just in undercoating!?!

Oh, and disconnect your smoke alarms first.....

steve77

must say for me the 3m clean and strip wheels are magic for small areas if you only doing a door or hatch or something like that

they leave the metal polished clean

Mick

Sand with 150, hit it with a solid coat of primer, then spray a (cheap *ss) enamel coat on top...

But hey, I may be spraying mine every other month...

ITS cars like donuts and dents...

Originally posted by BlueZee

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.

Thanks blueZee for the advertising. Backing you better say burning!!

I would not recommend it to anyone. It is a very determent way of getting rid of your paint. And an easy one also, this for your lazy workers among us. It is often used for to make race cars lighter. Normally there is on cars lots of paint, ant vibration material; underneath body protection etc. race cars don’t need them. They crash into the first corner..

But if you like to preserve you car for a longer time with this manner you overshoot the target.

It will burn all the protection between all the metal even at the places where you not able to get by. Especially between the fold seam and the frame.

I covered it well with Dinitrol but even now already there are some places of which I think “you did it not good Guus!”:disappoin

Well I have to say that dipping it is. I just got my panels back, and aside from the usual rust, they are great. I had the guards, doors, bonnet and hatch done, and they guy did a great job. I get the results of sandblasting but lose no metal as its non abrasive, the rust is chemically removed so no good metal is lost, then he coats all parts inside and out with 2pak etch primer, ready for further body work. I could not recommend the process enough, it was a bit costly, but the results were in my opinon enough to justify the cost.

(not a plug but its Minus Paint in Wingfield for all the SA guys)

Why blast, scrape sand grind of burn when it works this well?

Cheers Chris

The Panels before stripping

The Front Panels After Stripping