Hi everyone !! Completely new to this Forum and Corvette Lingo so bare with me !
I recently inherited this car and am now looking into fixing it up. I wont have pics for another day or so to put on here. I must have 100 questions but the first I want to start with is PAINT STRIPPING. Ive done alot of reading and talking to 'professionals' about the best way to strip the paint from a fibreglass car and have come up with mixed reviews. Its the entire car that will be done. Does anyone have experience with SODA blasting? Im leaning towards that.

Thanks alot !

 

No personal experiance, but a freind had a C2 he had blasted and had to re-do alot of lines in gelcoat because the soda material wore down the hood corners etc. Explore all your options before jumping in.

 

A lot of guys have had success using a single blade razor.
Do a search, there's tons of threads about this.
Good luck, Glenn

 

Hi and welcome. It will behoove you to do all mechanical repairs required before you get involved in paint. Depending on how much mechanical and rust repair is needed, you might find there's no budget for cosmetics as yet. I recommend you get it home, look closely at it (or have a knowledgeable friend or shop do so), then make a budget and plan of action to make it run and be safe to drive. An ugly but fun to drive project is way more fun than a pretty piece of yard art you cannot drive.

 

Blade razor !!!?? for an entire car !? wow.

 

1. Welcome......

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Stay in tune....

 

Welcome aboard.
If you use chemical stripper, make absolutely sure, it's for use on fiberglass.

 

my car was soda blasted

tho the Corvette never had(at all) a "gel coat" that could be damaged from this type of paint removal nor any other...the soda blasting(done before I got it) job seems to vary between slightly eating into the fiberglass(some resin gone, and you can see fibers) to leaving patches of paint/primer/pin-stripes

the soda blasting looks as if it did a good job of removing the one more recent re-paint of the car to red, but still looks as if 20% of the base factory primer, 15% of the original silver mist paint, and 85% of the fender pin-stripes are there...besides soda still found in every nook and cranny(tho it did help that the interior must have been completely removed beforehand) the outer surface looks as if it will still need lots of surface removal(sanding at this point?) which will have to be done carefully not to get down into any more of the fiberglass


but yea, as already posted:

....the best method is razorblades , and I'm surprised how well it works, looking at the photos other forum members have posted here...other chemical strippers might help with the razorblades, but they seem to add a huge "messy/smelly" factor and seems they don't help with the primer

....work on the mechanical stuff before the stripping, car wont be ready to paint until final running gear choices are completed(mod to fender flares, taller hood, etc.) and one greasy hand print can really pollute clean fiberglass or primer...I wish my car still had a protective layer of old paint on it


[edit] and here are a few of the links I started to gather so you can see what some of the other forum members have done/are doing with their car projects
[/edit]

 

Here is a link to a vette restoration being completed by another forum member (Tim Cote). He's put together a video of the razor blade process when he did it. Good luck.

Terry

http://www.corvette-restoration.com/...ping_paint.htm

 

Hi c,
Welcome,
I'm glad you're here.
I agree with m77 that depending on the rest of the car, paint might not be the first thing to address.
But, I prefer chemical stripping. The down side of blade stripping is that often the original primer remains on the car and each 'gouge' needs to be repaired.
Have Fun!
Regards,
Alan

 

Thanks for everyones positive help !!! One last question is then, you hear so many people talk about stripping their cars and how they took off two layers of paint so obviously people are painting overtop the original paint. In what instance would someone do that rather than strip and repaint? Just laziness?
Because besides the original paint being really dull and chipped away in a few spots its not too bad. Just wondering

 

Btw ALAN71. that was a great video !!! thats alot !

 

Think MACCO

By the way, I would do the paint last. Get the frame, suspension, and drive line in order first.

 

Go buy a fresh pack of 240 wet or dry and a good sanding block, a new garden hose, a 5 gallon bucket and a case of Coors light. While you are sanding you can think of a lot of things you want to do and how you want to do them. It isn`t the fastest or sexiest way to remove the paint but you will find a lot of things you want to do along the way.

 

Razored my paint off. My car had been stripped, then re-painted,so it wan't too bad. I found it helped to slightly round off the corners of the blades. Good times!
Cheers
Grant