CAMS69

I'm sorry i'm not posting pics of my 69 project.. i promise i will maybe this weekend!! But I have a question for you paint guru's.
The car has been repainted sometime in the past blue. This paint has lots of imperfections in it where someone has been touching it up. It's really a horrible paint job. I'm easly able to remove long and wide ribbons of paint with a razor blade. It's like the paint was not bonded to the primer paint very well. The brown primer underneath is hard tough and not going anywhere.. The car was origionally white and i see no sign of that color with the blue, i will assume for now it was either removed or it's under the brown primer. My question is i've seen where you can use a razor blade to remove the 40 year old paint but why does this newer paint come off so easy? And should I be concerened about the brown primer? Also the car is currently outdoors, will it be ok for the primer to attaract dirt and whatnot for now? Thanks and i will post pics soon!!
Heres the link. The pics are prolly out of order but they show the day we picked it up and the progress of taking it apart and scraping paint! Also pics of either new interior stuff or stuff i refurbished.

http://s1180.photobucket.com/albums/...o%20month%206/

birdsmith

The 'Brown primer' is likely the factory primer, and if you read many paint threads (like my own) you will find that shaving paint with a razor blade or other such sharp instrument is very common...there could be many reasons why the paint is poorly bonded but once it's dried and been on the car awhile it's hard to tell exactly what the problem might be...

markids77

If you don't have a sanding block and some 220 grit wet/dry paper go get a block and 5 sheet sleeve of 3M brand "Imperial" sandpaper. The block does not need to be more than 4 inches long for the exploration you need to do. Cut apiece of the paper to fit the block, turn your garden hose on and dribble a fine stream of water somewhere on the brown primer while you rub the sandpaper in about 1 foot long strokes. Use a "W" shaped stroke to spread the abrasion evenly over the entire area so the surface cuts evenly. Cover about a square foot area like this. You will soon start to see something showing under the primer... either "original" white paint, another color primer, or bare fiberglass. Tell us what's under the current coating and we'll help you decide what you need to do next.

CAMS69

Thanks for the response. I will read the thread. Come to find out the brown was primer sitting on top of the white.
When i started on the door I was able to get small chips to come off at a time all the way down to the grey original primer. Unfortunately it is much more difficult to remove the brown with the white without the blue still on it. I had done half the car to the brown and half to the original primer. I guess I will
Need to sand the brown.

markids77

And the white, and the brown factory primer that's underneath that. Unless you feel lucky, not stripping the car all the way back to bare glass is an invitation for the paint gremlins to come and bite you in the butt later... after you have spent all this time effort and money on a new finish. Best it get don "all the way" now, than redone in a couple months.

CAMS69

Thanks Markids77,
I will go all the way to the glass. The front clip is down to the oem grey primer, the rear clip still has brown primer on oem white on oem primer. I guess i'll be sanding it the rest of the way. Any advice? And Thanks

markids77

There's a "paint and body" section here... find it and read for awhile. Birdsmith's thread is a good source, and there are others here in "General" as well but there are more and different threads over there. Read as much as you can and form your best opinion from the several viewpoints presented... there are LOTS of ways to prep and paint these cars... most work OK, some work better.

Easy Mike

Brown primer is not factory. Gray and red were used depending on exterior color. What's under your brown?

CAMS69

Easy mike I'm out here now scraping. Under the brown is the own white and under that is the factory grey primer. Pic later I promise

CHarper

CAMS69 it sounds as if you are doing the same thing I am. Just be aware that this is a tremendous amount of work to get it right. I am at the end of striping and sanding and have been at it for about five months. Keep in touch with MARKIDS77 as he is a good resource and a guy that knows his way around a paint gun. Good luck.

CAMS69

It looks like the front end (everything gray) was sanded down to the primer coat.
The rear half (red) looks like that half was repainted some time when the car was blue. The coats that I took off were easy compared to that red stuff I guess I'm gonna have to sand it

Easy Mike

Now you're talkin'. Factory white over factory gray. Stop at the factory gray primer, then take an over all look to see what you might need. It's possible you may not need to strip the factory primer.

markids77

Hey Mike. I'm not attacking; just curious. Why would you recommend leaving a 40 year old coat of factory primer under whatever topcoats the OP chooses? It's only a bit more work to remove all paint, and there are better, more stable primers now.

birdsmith

Cam(?), you sound like you might be young...which is a good thing! I am presently in a race to see if I can finish my Vette before I die!! I do not recommend manually stripping paint off of a Corvette to anybody over 50. If you look at Rogman16's " 73 convertible resto" thread here in general there is a ton of good info there as well. Godspeed...

oldgto

Easy Mike

Both coats of factory primer were baked on. If the factory primer is in good shape, there is no real need to strip to bare fiberglass. The newer primer/sealers should shoot right over it.