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Wish me LUCK!!! This will be my first time ever painting anything other than the walls of my house.
I razorbladed about 13 coats of different colors of paint off that hood, got it down now to one last, thin layer of red primer, which I am going to hit with this citrus orange stripper I got, then I'm gonna put a new coat of fiberglass resin on the hood, because parts of it were BARE fiberglass exposed to the elements for a pretty good while. Then, last, I'm priming it. Gonna go slow, thin amounts at a time, and then once it's dry, I'm putting the hood back on the car. Figured I'd start with the hood, since, well, it was the worse off, and it seemed like a good, easy place to get exp with it. If the weather holds, I'm gonna do other body panels, one at a time, till the car is primed and ready for paint.
After you strip and neutralize with a water wash, let the panel dry 24 to 48 hours before you apply primer. Trapping moisture under your paint will cause it to bubble up and fall off once the finished car gets outside in the sun. Be as sure as you can the car is DRY before paint.
Thanks for the heads up on drying time. I actually haven't primed yet, as the weather did NOT hold. Hood is sitting in the garage now, scraped down to one last coat of white stuff (not paint, maybe some other type of coating?), drying after a thorough mineral spirit scrub.
The air is so humid right now, I can't really do anything with it.
And no pics, either. I usually have someone else for that, so I don't get my camera dirty, but my partner bailed on me yesterday. With any luck, some good weather will come through this coming week, and I'll be able to prime the hood. I am now terified of doing the rest of the car, because of how long it took me to get the hood just to the shape it is currently in. This could take me well over 150 hours...and at 5-6 hours every other week to work on it...well, you do the math.
Hey Kevin
I used the citrus stripper on mine to soften the layers of paint then came back and razor bladed. Then used lacquer thinner with a scrub pad then rinsed with water. What kind of primer are you using? Keep in mind although better than bare fiberglass primers are designed to absorb and the elements and oil will not be your friend.
There's no shortcut to getting it all off, now you know why shops want so much money for painting these things! I bladed my 77 and then used a DA sander for the last layers, but unless you are (or have been) a paid professional bodyman I cannot recommend that as it's easy to screw up because fiberglass sands away as easily as paint. I have more than 40 hours in 5 layers of paint removal on my car so I feel your pain.
There's no shortcut to getting it all off, now you know why shops want so much money for painting these things! I bladed my 77 and then used a DA sander for the last layers, but unless you are (or have been) a paid professional bodyman I cannot recommend that as it's easy to screw up because fiberglass sands away as easily as paint. I have more than 40 hours in 5 layers of paint removal on my car so I feel your pain.
Supposed to be a bit nicer this weekend, if so, she is ready and waiting, and I'll have some pics of for scrutiny, as well.
I'm thinking what I might do for the rest of the car is farm out SOME of the work. The areas that take a long time are the curvy areas...it's hard to get a razorblade into those spots. I might also invest in a set of chizeling tools. Remember in art class in school, and you had to do tile prints? And they had those multi shaped carving blades on the ends of screw driver handles? I Need to buy a set of those, maybe. We'll see. I don't know. For me, time is almost on a more limited supply than money, unlike most folks. But I don't have quite THAT kinda cash...and it I did, I'd use it to buy a 5 or 6 speed!