What are the pro's and con's of chemicially stripping and medium blasting for removal of body paint. Which is the prefered method.

Thanks,
Bill

 

Bill I am not sure there is a perfect way to strip paint from a Corvette. Chemical stripping is a lot of labor, messy, takes a lot of time and you need to make sure that you get ALL the paint stripper off before painting or you will have paint not sticking to the body. Medium blast is good if you have the bdy off the frame and you have someone who knows what they are doing. If not they can eat up the fiber glass on that Corvette Body. Stripping with baking soda or Soda Blasting is good but messy. You need to have body off frame and there again make sure the body is free and clean before painting. I have done all 3 ways. Good luck which ever way you choose.

 

I wouldn't be afraid of chemical stripping. It's a bit of a mess but you can do it yourself - you can work on it awhile, quit and then come back to it later. Tape off the jambs and hood openings to keep it out of where it doesn't belong and put plastic down on the floor and the mess is manageable. Captain Lee's Stripper is well recommended.

 

Thats what I used on my 65 and will be doing it on my 68 this spring. Just wash the heck out of it as you go along, When I was all finished, I let the body bake in the sun. Re wash, and wash a lil more. You will be fine.

 

Well after my experience with my car I would say it all depends what kind of paint is on the car and how many layers.
I had two US paintjobs and one UK paintjob on my 65.
Th UK paint would hardly strip so I sanded that one.
The US layers I partly striped and scraped (razorblade).
Personally I prefer the razorblade method its easy to do and less mess.

Ray

 

when i stripped my '75 i used combination of 50/50 paint stripper and lacquer thinner, worked great and was able to work on a panel at a time, sure hated removing that original lacquer though but it could not be saved.

 

I used Captain Lee's stripper and was not too hard great job, just keep rinsing well, alot!!!!!

 

Lot of work but in the end does the best job.

 

Captain Lee's Stripper.Good choice for a stripper. Have used it on two cars in the past.Bob W

 

I recommend checking the paint and body forum. Wish I had prior to starting my project. Lots of great info.

 

like everybody else said "Captian lee's is the bees knees" the only way to go. it is messy and slow, i stripped my 64 coupe last spring. the body was off the frame and on a dolly about 3 feet high-a very cool working hight for stripping. it took about 3 weeks part time to get down to the bare glass, stripping down to the bare glass is only way to go. 2 gallons of lee's will strip any vette. i am lucky, i have an 8 foot solid wooden fence with a solid gate on the side of my property just to the right of my last garage. it is definately messy, but i just rolled the body on the dolly behind the gate and went at it.

be advised: captian lee's will also strip bondo, that worried me as my car has flairs and lots of mods and crash repairs, so i suspected lots of bondo.
it turned out stripping the bondo was a good thing (but it was freaking me out as it happened !!!)

while stripping the car (and now the bondo, i was amazed, there was bondo slathered on panels that had no damage, go figure....
by stripping ALL the paint and bondo, you get down to the origonal glass (or in my case modded glass)
you can see any damage. mixing up resin and soaking the matt and laying the soaked matt on the body is fun. you can build anything from fiberglass.
the only thing i hate is the glass strands itch like crazy if you do heavy glass work.

don't worry about the chemicals in captian lee's, they wash off with water, besides after stripping the car and doing the necessary glass work you will spend many hours block sanding the body to get it absolutely straight (i hate that part).

use epoxy 2K primer to seal the body.

spraying a vette (or any car) now days is crazy. in the old days we just sprayed 50% thinned out lacguer, it was easy and buffed out smooth to a high gloss. of course we had to spray anywhere from 5 to 20 coats.
with the new urathane BC-CC paints they are a lot thicker. 2 coats of base/color and 2 coats of clear. you are good to go.

if you ever read the labels, the catalist for urathane paint has cyanade in it. it is mixed 8 to 1. that stuff will kill you. so why put it in paint.

 

I did not see this mentioned so I am. After scraping the paint off, immediately wash off with clear water - no soap. Then dip a dupont scuff pad (maroon, from an auto paint store) in lacquer thinner and scrub. That is when you get past the red primer.

And do not get any other petroleum product on the raw glass such as oil, penetrating fluid.

 

It's "isocyanates" - urethane paint chemistry is very complex. That's why clearcoat spraying in assembly plants is all done by robots - no humans in the clearcoat booths.