painting prep c2

[F H.]

i am going to re paint the hard top on my 63. Would appreciate some input on paint stripper vs sanding/priming. On painter advised against stripper because "it permeates the fiberglass making it difficult to repaint"?? Thanks

[Richard M.]

Re: painting prep c2

I use Captain Lee's Spra Strip exclusively for Corvette fiberglass. A proven product.

It's made to be used on fiberglass. After use, a thorough wash with liquid soap and water and several rinses, good drying time and your fiberglass will look like it just came from the Press-Molding jig.

[Tom A.]

Re: painting prep c2

I agree with the Captain Lee's. I've been using it for over 30 yrs with no problems. Follow directions carefully.

[Robert D.]

Re: painting prep c2

soda blasting will work great thats how i strip all my fiberglass leaves a nice surface finish

[Richard M.]

Re: painting prep c2

soda blasting will work great thats how i strip all my fiberglass leaves a nice surface finish

Yes that's good too. I had the undersides of the trunk & decklid on a '59 done with soda and they came out great.

Stripper takes much time on pieces like that. I used stripper on the door ends and bottoms and it took much time with all of the crevices on those surfaces. Afterwards, I'd wished I used soda on those too.

Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: painting prep c2

Found my photos of those panels before & after soda, stripper, crack repairs, prime, paint.


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This is what had to deal with after removing paint on the door sides/bottoms. I used stripper on those. As much as it's a good product on large flat surfaces, it's a pain on door crevices. But I think I just got impatient and instead of waiting for my soda blaster guy, I did it myself. Once I got the paint (many layers of re-paints) off I found cracks and damage. A bit of time sorting that out.

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[Leif A.]

Re: painting prep c2

Very nice work, Rich...beautiful car!!

[Edward J.]

Re: painting prep c2

Rich, Where's the finished product Pic.'s? Just wondering what is the cost of soda blasting looks like a great way to remove paint?

[Michael G.]

Re: painting prep c2

I've used Captain Lee's on several Corvettes with excellent results. As other have mentioned 'thoroughly' wash your sub-straight after every application.....rinsing several times. To date have had no issues later down the road using Captain Lee's.

I've discovered recently that Captain Lees' is no longer sold in the supply stores here in the Okc area....very disappointing to hear. Will have to source elsewhere.

[Tom A.]

Re: painting prep c2

You can buy Captain Lee's direct from Halon marketing.

[Robert D.]

Re: painting prep c2

Soda blasting is a littlae more expensive than other types of blasting. i had my 59 hood done and it cost around 150 dollars. the reason is because you cannot recycle the soda. the benifits are many the soda does not harm glass or metal parts. also water dissolves it so you wash the parts and thats it its done with other media i find that no matter how good you think you clean it the stuff comes out of everywhere for a long time
good luck
bob

[Michael G.]

Re: painting prep c2

You can buy Captain Lee's direct from Halon marketing.

Good news, I was hoping someone would speak up.....thanks Tom.

[Richard M.]

Re: painting prep c2

Very nice work, Rich...beautiful car!!

Thanks Leif. It was quite a project.

Rich, Where's the finished product Pic.'s? Just wondering what is the cost of soda blasting looks like a great way to remove paint?

Edward, The entire external body was soda blasted by the owners local shop. It cost him $1k. Fortunately, I had no role in the decision, however I was left with a real challenge and I was displeased with their process. They did NOT use the traditional soda with water method. It was a dry method with additional media added to reduce dust. What this did was penetrate the fiberglass too much and caused a surface which was very rough. I ended up replacing the front nose on this car as it has too much prior damage.

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Here you can see the rough texture left by the improper soda media usage.
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I had to use a thick 2 part surfacing primer to level out the entire body. The product I used was Duratec. It is similar to Slick-Sand. Both are polyester based.
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After paint and completed.

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[Joe R.]

Re: painting prep c2

Richard,

Thanks for the pictures of what can happen with the media strippers. That has happened many times with everything from pecan shells to glass beads!
I have always used some type of liquid stripper with several applications and washing always after each session. Never letting the stripper sit longer than the prescribed time on any fiberglass surface. Water does neutralize the action of the liquid stripper.
The above Corvette looks great. Hope the time, money and effort involved has paid you back in satisfaction. Sometimes that's the only way to come out ahead on these old rags!

JR

[Richard M.]

Re: painting prep c2

Hi JR,

Yup, it was certainly a project filled with surprises. The day I took a ride to the blaster's facility, I walked in the booth with him and saw the rough texture of what was left, I asked him......"Where's the water based soda system?" He said he didn't like that and he uses another media to keep the dust down. It was too late to call the owner and tell him to halt his guy from doing any further damage. It was 95% done when I got there. I was so disappointed and knew I was in for a real tough task of making the body smooth again. Lesson learned, but it all worked out in the end thanks to the Duratec product. It just took several layers to build up the surfaces to a uniform smoothness, but with a enormous amount of time block sanding. This of course was long after extensive bodywork to repair damages attained in the cars tough life many years prior. The car had 3 re-paints and shoddy metal plate repairs from the past. I certainly had much ahead of me when that tired old battle scarred body came back to the shop.

When I decided to have the decklid and trunk backsides soda blasted, I took them to a shop 10 minutes from my home. He uses the water method exclusively. Those pieces came out perfect.......smooth as a baby's bottom.

That entire '59 restoration start to finish is here on my website.....

http://home.comcast.net/~richmz/site/?/page/1959_Corvette_Restoration_Project

Rich