Paint stripping tip and a rust question

[BOXER957]

I've been reading a lot of builds on here and a couple things I've noticed is a lot of people when stripping paint to bare steel are using either air-tools and/or a lot of sandpaper. A lot of wear on the compressor. I try to use an electric grinder with a twisted wire wheel or strpper, but the easiest method I've found to strip to bare metal is Aircraft stripper. Use a metal dog water bowl, pour some in the bowl, brush it on the area you want to strip. In about 10 min's you just scrape it off with a putty knife right to the steel. Way faster, cheaper and cleaner than any other method I've found. Now, my question about rust. I see a lot of people pull up their old carpets, find all the rust underneath and clean it up. After that they just apply dynamat or some other sound-deadening material. I always blast and paint any metal I'm hiding with a couple coats of POR-15 it completely encapsulates the metal and moisture actually strengthens it and then spray some bedliner just as an added precaution. To me it would seem that anything you've found rust on and went through the trouble of removing the rust, wouldn't it be a good idea to stop it from recurring?

[FetchMeAPepsi]

I can't afford POR 15 (liquid gold) so I spray it with Ospho, rough it up, and paint.

[Lugnutz65]

Originally Posted by BOXER957

. . . . . . . but the easiest method I've found to strip to bare metal is Aircraft stripper. Use a metal dog water bowl, pour some in the bowl, brush it on the area you want to strip. In about 10 min's you just scrape it off with a putty knife right to the steel. Way faster, cheaper and cleaner than any other method I've found.

I think it's cheaper for me to use a polycarbide stripper disc on my grinder than it would be to use aircraft stripper. One disc costs me under $5 and I can strip about 30 Sqft of flat or slightly curved panels with one disc. No mess or chemicals. Takes off scale rust too. You need a decent grinder though. No gooey paint to scrape. Don't get me wrong, Aircraft stripper is the BEST stripper when you need it and I use it when I need to get places the polycarbonate wheel won't reach.

Originally Posted by BOXER957

I always blast and paint any (rusty) metal I'm hiding with a couple coats of POR-15 it completely encapsulates the (rusty) metal and moisture actually strengthens it and then spray some bedliner just as an added precaution. To me it would seem that anything you've found rust on and went through the trouble of removing the rust, wouldn't it be a good idea to stop it from recurring?

I completely agree. Treat the rust with modern encapsulators like POR15 or other product. Especially hidden areas like floors.

[BOXER957]

Originally Posted by Lugnutz65

I think it's cheaper for me to use a polycarbide stripper disc on my grinder than it would be to use aircraft stripper. One disc costs me under $5 and I can strip about 30 Sqft of flat or slightly curved panels with one disc. No mess or chemicals. Takes off scale rust too. You need a decent grinder though. No gooey paint to scrape. Don't get me wrong, Aircraft stripper is the BEST stripper when you need it and I use it when I need to get places the polycarbonate wheel won't reach.



I completely agree. Treat the rust with modern encapsulators like POR15 or other product. Especially hidden areas like floors.

Just a tip for those that may want to give it a shot and save the wear on an $800 compressor.I have used the wheel as you show in the pic. I have also used the wire rope disc. Both work great but fling crap everywhere. I just find most older vehicles have multiple layers of who knows what kind of paint (lead based?) and keeping the dust and mess down... it just works best IMO it cuts through all layers right down to the bare metal. Then I clean it and sand it.