The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Please recommend an electric sander for the truck clean up

Ok guys I need some advice. I'm going to start cleaning up a 1950 3100 I just got and the paint is thick and cracking. I think I need to sand quite a bit off.

I sanded my last truck by hand and that is something I don't want to do again! Unfortunately I do not have a air compressor big enough for most heavy duty tools.

Can anyone recommend an electric sander that'll get the job done? I'll post a couple pics of what I'm looking at.

I have used a 9" electric auto polisher with a 9" 'scotch-bright' paint stripping disc with much success on my 3100. This will not grind the metal down.

Norton makes a real nice paint eating disc which threads right on to an electric angle grinder. It is blue and looks like a sponge but it is much harder. It will remove paint and bondo like nothing else, while not removing metal.

I like to start with brush on paint remover...scrape scrape scrape,

then use something mechanical (blasting and/or sanding) after that. Saves a lot of effort and less dust everywhere.

I just ordered this 6" sander for $32. It's on its way, but I'll give it a review once it shows up:

Pneumatic sander

I was looking at those Norton wheels. If they don't remove metal I think I'll get them. Are there different number sizes or is it by color?


Also my little air compressor is a 26 gallon with a 1.5 hp. 5 cfm @ 40. 4 cfm @ 90. 125 psi max. Can I shoot with this? Piece by piece maybe? HF gun work? This is a one time paint and I do not have one of the large cheap paint shops near me.

Your compressor will run a gun. For a one time deal and not looking for show quality the HF gun would probably do. Just don't try to go too fast so the air will keep up. Could you be having any more fun? I doubt it.🛠

I've heard of people using small compressor and I've also heard a lot of people say to get the cfm right or it wouldn't work.

How much paint would it take? I'd like to try to price it out before I buy stuff. Rustoleum paint job sounds great for the price, but I would think I could get paint and primer pretty cheap too right?

The Wagner Paint Eater was recommended by a member several years ago. It is excellent for removing paint.

I have used the HF guns to shoot epoxy & hi build primer, but I never tried them with paint. It did a pretty nice job with the epoxy. But I have a 7.5 HP 80 gal tank.

FYI, if you know someone who has another compressor that you can borrow, you can plumb them both into one line and double your air delivery that way. I saw a guy on You Tube who had 3 small compressors running at the same time to paint his car!

That unit uses a similar wheel on it only smaller in diameter. I like the bigger Norton wheels on an angle grinder to really make good time.

Carl,

Would you please post a link to that wheel. It looks to be quite useful.

Thanks,

I think I'll buy some Norton wheels this week. I plan to have engine and glass out by the end of week. And Sunday I hope to have the bad sections of cab floor out and have new floor in, which I should get Sunday morning.

So Norton wheels shouldn't hurt metal right? Once I'm down to metal I'm gonna put primer on. I want to make sure this lil tank will work for sure.

Dewalt DA with 40 grit. http://www.bunchobikes.com/1952suburban305.jpg

Dewalt angle drill with rust buster disc. http://www.bunchobikes.com/1952suburban311.jpg

I hate listening to my compressor while sanding.

I need another angle drill...mine got stolen. I'm definitely buying some Norton wheels for angle grinding. If it's by color, are there any I should avoid.

With the above compressor specs, have any of you used the purple HF find with decent results? This will be a daily driver not a showcase.

Also on a budget... looking for advice so I'm looking at all my options...

Rustoleum enamel and primer...spray good? Look ok?

I'll be looking at paint prices after floor is in.

Ok... I'm searching and looking up anything and everything paint related. It's a lot if you have never looked it up before.

I've helped do prep work before, but never actually painted so I'm a lil lost.

In the next week or two or I plan to paint. What could I use within say a couple hundred bucks. Single stage enamel with primer? What type? Welcome any advice for a new painter.

Matt, I am also a newbie painter.... I spent months researching this stuff and trying to decide which way to go. If you have created a fixed amount that you want to spend on your truck, then that will dictate your options. I taught myself body working with my project so I am still learning, and still have a lot to learn...so maybe a more experienced body & paint guy will chime in.. There are a variety of ways to go about painting a truck. Here's what I chose to do:

If you are planning on going down to bare metal, one contemporary practice is to lay down 2 coats of epoxy primer right over the bare metal after either media blasting or prepping the metal with 80 grit on a DA sander. Then rust repair/panel beating, then touch-up epoxy over the areas that you had to strip. Then the body filler goes on and you sand and get the panels exactly how you want them. If you sanded through the epoxy, then you apply another coat of epoxy (or just touch up areas that you sanded through). When the panels are straight and no metal is showing, then you apply 2-3 coats of hi-build primer, and resume your block sanding until it's as perfect as you can get it. Then another coat of epoxy (mixed with reducer) to seal everything. Then you can shoot your paint. Which finishing sandpaper grit to use between each product is determined by the manufacturer's product sheet and/or your own personal experience.

The other, more old school (and probably cheaper) route seems to be to use body filler over bare metal, then etch primer, then paint. Some guys don't put on a sealing coat before paint, while others do. It seems that most guys seal the primer before laying down paint, though. I have no idea how cheaply you could do this second process.

A couple hundred bucks won't cover it. It might not even cover the cost of 2 gallons of decent SS paint. I have done all the work myself and in materials alone (epoxy + activator, hi-build primer, body filler, sanding blocks, sandpaper rolls, shop towels, special cleaner/degreaser, masking tape, SS urethane paint, reducer, hardener, mixing cups, HF paint gun, filters and filter media, etc...

I probably have over $1400 in materials already. That's not including a quality DeVilbiss gun I bought to lay the paint down (Which was worth it). I used quality materials at the best prices I could find. The paint was upper middle-of-the-road quality urethane SS. Sometimes if you choose to work with less-than-quality materials it becomes so time consuming/frustrating/unpleasant, that the extra money you might spend on better materials is well worth it.

You can go the Rustoleum route (or other industrial/tractor paint) and save yourself a world of time and money. It's a truck, after all- right?

It all depends what you want at the end of the process... I almost went with Rustoleum, but after I considered how much time I was going to be putting into the prep, I felt that my time and effort body working and prepping would be wasted after covering it with something that was not going to endure another 60 years.

I've spent hours online watching guys roll-on or spray Rustoleum with results that seem pretty amazing to me....but I don't think it belongs on a restoration.

There are many opinions regarding how you should paint a car, and many of them are coming from guys who have been doing it for many years, and plenty of them don't agree with each other, so it is easy to become lost in the world of painting... good luck, on whatever you decide to do!

I wish I had the money for that route..but I don't and I don't think I'll have the extra cash for a while. I need to go to the metal in some areas for sure, was hoping I could feather it out and keep most of old paint on. I know rustoleum means a full strip someday but I want to protect metal and look decent without a lot into paint. I have an engine and trans and maybe a rear end ready to go...but I need to clean up the truck.

If rustoleum is my only route cost wise...what does everyone think of the rusty metal primer on it?

What about single stage paint with primer? What am I looking at in cost.

Hi Matt,

I wasn't saying that Rustoleum would be your only route if you had a limited painting budget...it is possible to use a primer/sealer product over the paint you've got and then shoot something over that. It's just that I have no experience costing that out. Surely someone else here has done it and can let you know. None of the stuff coming out of an auto paint shop is cheap though.

If you were to go that route, then the paint price becomes a problem once again, though.

Are you stuck on a particular color? The paint shop near me actually gives paint away when it's rejected by a customer (usually because the color wasn't mixed correctly). It's easier for them to give it away rather than pay to have it disposed of (but I'm in California, and things are probably different here than Texas, but who knows?)

Might be worth going to a couple of local auto paint stores and asking them if they give rejected paint away or sell it for a huge discount.

I've been looking all I can on paint...almost a little overwhelming.

So... I have areas that need to go to metal...i can feather in old paint...i need to do my best to get all rust gone. Worried about missing a bit or book and crannies.

To cover all this I can use an epoxy primer right? Spray a couple light costs on...but this can't really be sanded right?

If not I need a primer on top of this...i keep seeing 2k and high build...what do I need?

After this. I can use a 1 stage right? Otherwise a base and then some clear.. 1 stage sounds easier.

I'm still stuck on types..of paints and primers.. I just know I need to keep with same types or family.

Am I getting warm? Lol

So...im still looking up stuff and I found 2k primer grey. Says to use on old paint..base metal and filler....so do I need a epoxy? Seems like epoxy is just a safe thing regardless right?

I use epoxy over bare metal, over hi build primer, over body filler. I have never used it over old paint. I know that you CANNOT use epoxy over any kind of etch paint, such as etch primers. I really don't know whether you can use it over the original paint (is it lacquer?).

Yes, epoxy can be sanded. I sand it all the time. It sands easily. It's just that it's not a hi build primer, so it doesn't really have any "fill" qualities to it. It fills the swirls from an 80 grit DA sanding, but I think that is about the limit of it.

Etch primers have acid in them and you should not mix acid with epoxy. If you are going to use etch primer, then do not use epoxy for anything.

As far as SS being simpler than BCCC, the consensus seems to be that BCCC is simpler. I don't know because I've only shot a motorcycle tank in BCCC, not a whole car. I found SS paint easy to work with.

Epoxy is sprayed on with 2 "wet" coats ( or one wet coat mixed with reducer when using it to seal up al your work prior to painting). If you haven't handled a spray gun before, it is unlike spraying with an aerosol can- it lays paint down nice and wet (when the gun is adjusted properly). There won't be any "light" coats. If you desire a thinner coat of epoxy, then you add some reducer to it to thin it out. Once epoxy is on the metal, it's protected from moisture & corrosion. Other primers will not protect like epoxy- they are permeable and moisture will pass through most primers and allow it to go straight to the metal. This is why you see primered car & truck rusting underneath the primer- because primer isn't moisture proof. Epoxy is.

Hi build primer: basically sprayable body filler- it dries hard and thick and you can actually "shape" it with sanding blocks. It does not replace the body filler stage, but it takes your panels to the next level as far as smoothness and straightness. Just remember: the paint will reflect whatever is underneath it. If the panel is wavy, has pin holes in the primer, any small dents- it all shows up in the paint. Even sanding scratches come through, if you haven't done the sanding properly but moving up through eh different grits to remove sanding scratches from the previous grit.

The idea behind adding on more coat of epoxy over the truck before painting it is to create a barrier- moisture won't move through epoxy, but it will move into body filler and other primers. The paint is a barrier as well, so it's probably overkill in most instances to seal with epoxy, but that is what I see guys doing, just to be sure.

I can't add much more, because I only know what I have done. My understanding is that primer/surfacer is designed to be applied over old paint. Eastwood has a bunch of instructional videos on painting that might be worth watching.

Some light reading on primers: Difference in Primers

Start here: https://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/ Their product is good and cost effective. Especially the epoxy primer. Read the product sheets. That goes for any manufacturer. They usually tell you what is best when using their product and sometimes, what you should use on it afterword. At the very least, you can coat you truck in an epoxy primer and leave it for a while to give you time to do other work and so you can decide what kind of finish you want to do. That seems to be what I'm doing on my Suburban. Removing rust and painting a section at a time. This month? The roof. Pictures in my signature link.

I use SPI epoxy as well- great stuff.

Mark, great pictures of your project.

Can you tell me about the roll pin you installed in the door handle? Is the reason they sag because the handle is loose on the shaft??

Painting section by section or piece by piece doesn't cause different shades?

As long as the temps, mix, and orientation are the same you should be good to go.
As long as your not shooting flake...
Just make sure your piece is sitting how it will on the truck.
Upside down could make a visual difference.

Not a worry for me. All I'm spraying right now is epoxy primer which will eventually be covered with a single stage. I'm more worried about current and future rust. When it is time for the finish coat is when I will worry about finish coat issues and consistency.

Yup, sometimes. That and the shaft/key hole is worn.

thanks Mark

Watch out for moisture and oil in your air lines. Filters and water traps are vital. Simple to use and plumb in. Don't skip them.