Ryan laid out some points on chem stripping. You do not need to run a straight edge to sand blasted damage. It is MUCH worse than that everytime I have ever seen it. The panels are TOTALLY DISTROYED. We are not talking, "Gee I have some more work to do" Damage, We are talking "It is TOTALLY DISTROYED, I'll have to throw it in the dumpster" kinda damage.
The sand hitting the metal are like hundreds of thousands of little hammers stretching the outer surface of the metal. The inside doens't get stretched so the metal warps out towards the blaster. This is VERY ugly stuff.
It "can" be done, all I am saying is, it CAN more likely DISTROY your truck. I have sandblast very few things. Once and while I will bring a sheet metal part to a blaster here in town. The part either has to need little blasting, so he doesn't have to "bare down on it" or it is thick metal, or it doesn't matter if it gets screwed up anyway. The last thing I brought to him was a 1928 Buick door that I was going to use in a display. It didn't have to be perfect, it had very little rust, this was a perfect candidate. He TOTALLY DISTROYED IT. I had to shrink with a rose bud tip on a torch! I put a full gallon of filler on this door to "repair" it good enough for this display.
I use a couple of differnt methods. Chemical strippiing, or sanding. I like sanding, I usually take one panel at a time. Sand the paint off with an 8" orbital sander with 40 grit, then 80, then 120 with a 6" DA. I spot sandblast the nooks and crannies that can't be sanded. This seems to work the best.
Then after each panel is done, I do the body work and get it into primer before going onto the next panel.
A totally stripped bare metal car or truck can be VERY, VERY overwelming.
