The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Dings, dents and stripping

Hi all!

I have been doing a lot of research, and probably just confusing myself (haha) but I am wondering a few things about bodywork.

A) What are the best ways to strip a crappy paint job off (once I get to that stage) so that I can reach bare metal? I basically want to stay with the flat black, but wondering what resources to look at.

Photo of truck


B) What are some of the best methods to get out minor dents and dings along the body? I see so many options but just get lost in it all!


Thanks you for your help I quite appreciate it!

I'm a novice at this but I sent my panels to a sand blaster... As for dents and dings.... I have been using hammer and dolly to get close then using a shrinking disc... Takes time but I don't want to have a bondo mobile...

My 2 cents

About two years ago I bought a Wagner Paint Eater just for laughs and it turned out to be one of the best tools I've used. It's easy to handle and rips through paint and bondo with ease. I've stripped my entire truck (minus the bed) with two disks and wouldn't think of using anything else.

At that time I caught a lot of flack because it was new and untested. Since then the same disks have become available for angle grinders and more and more guys have discovered them.

Highly recommended... PHOTOS
ANOTHER PHOTO

As for tiny dings and dents, Rage Gold and a lot of careful block sanding should do just fine. Nothing wrong with a little filler if you're not good at metal finishing.

Thank you so much! Both great ideas

ditto on the Wagner Paint Eater. I bought one after reading Woody's recommendation about a year ago. It is superb (thanks, Woody).

I was able to buy Norton Paint Stripper wheels for my angle grinder, they look very similar to the Wagner's in Woody's photo and work great, I used them to strip the frame and running boards. Got mine at Home Depot, $9.97.
Mike

I took advise of Woody and bought Wagner's tool. It is awesome, I stripped porbably most of the truck. The only issue I had was some areas those discs cannot reach and I started using Wire wheel on Angle grinder and turned out to be my best option so far and cheap. I buy wire wheels from HF for 4 bucks each compared to 14 bucks from HD or Lowes. And by the way Northern tool 20$ angle grinder is great deal comes with few wheels as well. I used one day close to 7 hrs. in cleaning my truck and just kept working. HF only broke in few uses.

My 2 cents.

Ganesh

I had a couple close calls with power wire brushes. I had my shirt wrapped up twice by the things and the way they throw wire led me to look for an alternative.

I quit using wire brushes and switched to NYALOX brushes and found they are very effective at getting paint and bondo out of crevices.

I found that the flap brush and 4" mandrel mounted ones in gray (coarse) work best for that purpose. I also found that the blue (fine grit) are VERY handy for scuffing the surface of patch panels in preparation for paint... especially the floorboards, inner cowl panels and other things with lots of crevices. PICTURE

The only tools I used to strip my entire truck down to bare metal (see my photos) were the Wagner and Nyalox. No sloppy chemicals or the mess of blasting, just sweep up the dust.

Wear a respirator.

There is nasty stuff in that dust.

A search would bring up some info posted before about dent repair...Eric

Thanks again everyone. Looks like I will get that wagner tool.
Yes, I hate wire brushes. Being a welder I come home with wires sticking out of my clothing and skin sometimes. I look like pinhead. HAHA!

Thanks Eric - I have done searches but find the searches really pull up some unrelated stuff most of the time. Very vague, and so I hope everyone doesn't mind me asking!

Thanks again!