The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Beginner how to (on the cheap)

Good morning. My son and I recently picked up a 1952 3100. As you can see, the prior owner(s) have attempted to do "something" to the exterior. I'm not sure if all the original paint was removed and then some sort of primary applied or if it was just painted over. There is visible surface rust coming through. There is also a lot of filler in places that was not sanded out very well.

We are not doing a restoration, just want to get it up and running hopefully as a daily driver. I may try to take off bed, fenders, etc to enable a taking care of the nooks and crannies. We can't afford media blasting and don't have the facilities to do anything at home. I need advice on how to remove the paint currently on the truck and then put on some sort of primary/rust preventing agent and then maybe some sort of flat top coat.

Do I get some sort of electric sander/wire brush? Once down to the metal, do I fine sand or just add rust prevention directly on top? Also, we are going to have to attack this piece meal. Maybe one fender then a month later another fender, then maybe a door, etc.

If you could provide links to good videos and/or links to product to use, it would be greatly appreciated.

might start with a good chemical paint stripper, once you get the majority of the finish off, a sander should take care of getting it to fairly clean metal, after which epoxy primer would be best to preserve it and prevent rust, especially doing the pieces a bit at a time

Bill

Thank you. Would something like an orbital sander work? What grits would be best?

yes, could do if that's what you have - I'd try 80 grit once you've got rid of the bulk of the paint, it'll leave the best 'tooth' for a primer

Bill

Hi Boys,

In my opinion, that body isn't that bad overall. Yes, the PO didn't finish off the filler very well, but it looks like the sheet metal was sanded and then covered with spray can primer. The rust on the rear fender is typical of metal sanded down to bare metal and given a couple coats of primer and then left in the weather. without sealing it will always rust in a few months.

Anywhere the original paint is still in place, don't take it off, use it as a base.

I would wet sand the whole thing with 220 or 330 grit. I would expect you would find 80% of the body ready for nothing more then another coat of primer. Even that rear fender will clean right up with wet sanding.

5 gal bucket of warm water with a little bit of something like Spic & Span or simple green and keep the area wet and rinsed with the hose.

Then evaluate where the bad spots are.

Note the areas you sand have to be dried and covered with primer within a day to prevent surface rust.

Even better yet! Thanks Jim.

IMHO, I'd avoid the chemical stripper. Too many opportunities for some to soak into a crevice and not get rinsed out and neutralized properly. Then after you have invested all the work in primer/paint (even if you give it a budget paint job), it would be a shame as you sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor to see the paint bubbling up in a crack due to some chemical stripper left behind.

Start out w/ 80 grit and see how deep the primer goes. It may surprise you how much paint is actually on there. I used chemical stripper on a truck once. Even after what I thought was an adequate wash down to neutralize, the paint let go about 3 months later. Only thing I could ever deduce was that it was the stripper in the crevices. This was on a 1963 GMC Truck.

Yeah, chemical would have been my last choice. I have a tendency to spill things like that as well as "fling/drip" issues.

If you're looking at mechanical stripping i.e. sanding, then look for a regular circular disk like a grinder to remove the majority of the old paint. It's much more aggressive than a DA.
It doesn't take as long and if more than one coat of paint is on your truck can cut the time in half compared to a DA.
Plus if you use one of those old 20lb 7" grinders you can skip the gym weights routine for the week!

Also if you find multi layers you can use 24 or 36 grit to cut and break up the top layers stopping before breaking through to the metal then switching to 80 or 100 for the rest.
Somewhere around this step I switch over to DA.

To get the pitted area you can use phosphoric acid (Ospho, Picklex, etc) but make sure to neutralized it properly if using epoxy primer.

Just remember coarse sand paper will remove metal fast.
Only use an oscillating type sander DA etc. Sand blast, or chemical.

On the other hand, if you are not going down to bare metal in all areas, use the current layers of primer, paint, etc as your substrate. HAND sand using sanding blocks of different lengths using 80 grit to start. Once its very uniform (not in color, but in smoothness) use body filler to smooth those low areas, then hit the whole thing with epoxy primer.

What you are doing is rather than spreading a 1/8" skim coat on everything as most people do, you are using your current substrate as the first round of filler. I have done several entire trucks and have no mechanical, electrical, pneumatic sanders at all. Once you master the art of the feel of the work, you will be able to fine tune your technique. At that point, if you feel mechanical tools are still necessary, get out the wallet. That was my plan years ago, then discovered no need at all to get the tools!

There are other considerations. For example, anywhere you apply heat for welding up damage, your substrate will be compromised and you will need to sand to bare metal in those areas. I don't keep any old substrate myself, I sandblast everything, but many people do the above technique with dazzling results.

Norton paint stripper disc for angle grinder. Google it. Eats paint like nobody's business , but doesn't touch the metal. Works great on bondo too.

I Googled it - which one is it?

Thank you, Denny

I prefer this one for a 7" grinder. Also sell a 4.5" version. Poly-X stripping disk