Looking for guidance on stripping paint/rust

[Zach]

Hello, I recently acquired a very rusty and ugly 71 mustang, "71 Mach 1 - Novice Restoration" thread. I am looking to get opinions and guidance on ways to strip the car down to bare metal, remove surface rust, find bad metal, and just overall clean up the body so I can start doing rust repair on a clean body. I will need to do pretty much every inch of the car as well, inside, outside, under, on top. After grinding I will spray with a primer but I will save that for another thread.

Media blasting is the first thing that I was looking into, I have a friend who might be able to get me in otherwise places charge an arm and a leg where I am located, it would also be a hassle to transport the car. Garage has a slight incline which makes it really hard to roll the car out to work on it so I resort to getting the garage and the t/a dirty. Could always buy my own dustless adapter, or something and blast it myself at home Just am unsure how difficult that would be to not mess it up.
The next avenue I started to venture was hand grinding/sanding, I am quite patient and don't mind putting in a bunch of physical labor to save money, but this also brings up a lot of questions I do not have knowledge on. Curious what people on this forum have used regarding this route, angle grinder, polisher, D/A, strip and clean discs, sanding disc, brands, etc, etc. My current idea was to get a big polisher and put some 7 inch strip and clean discs on it. Polisher seems to do a good job, just have to be worried about warping and gouging, plus it means I will have a buffer for when I finish paint.
Using paint thinners/strippers seems to be another option but doesn't seem like the best solution. They look to be pretty messy and tend to get pretty expensive when you start buying gallon after gallon. Will most likely avoid this depending on what people say.

Overall, I am thinking I will be choosing a polisher, unsure what kind, with strip and clean discs and see how that turns out. I will need to find something for tight areas as well, angle grinder can barely get in some places. But, I would love to hear suggestions and guidance. Being 19 I have little experience and research the heck out of everything before I start something.
Thanks.

 

[giantpune]

There's a such thing now as sandblasters that use a pressure washer. You dont need a big compressor. Its a thing you can buy pretty cheap. Or some locations have guys with this all setup on a trailer. For a couple grand, they come to you and blast your car with water and sand right there in your yard.

I have used chemical strippers in the past. Back around 2002, you could buy aerosol cans at autozone. Spray it on the car, paint bubbled off. You wiped it away to show bare metal. I went looking for some a couple months back and didn't see any. No clue if they still make it.

Angle grinder with different attachments. The rigid foam spongy paint stripper discs work well. Some guys had good things to say about the 3M discs with a bunch of little fingers on them. Caveat being that spinning discs have a radius. They cannot get into tight corners.

There are places that will soak larger parts or the entire car in some substance. Kinda depends on how bit your parts are if its feasible to do at home or not. This dude below has a cow trough full of molasses at his house. I used some evaporust from HF and soaked some parts and it hook them down to bare metal. That probably doesn't scale very well if you need to strip an entire car.

 

[Sheriff41]

If you're on a budget Harbor Freight sells this: https://www.harborfreight.com/9-amp-surface-conditioning-tool-58079.html It's not going to get into all the crevices and corners, but it'll do a number on the large surfaces.

 

[Zach]

There's a such thing now as sandblasters that use a pressure washer. You dont need a big compressor. Its a thing you can buy pretty cheap. Or some locations have guys with this all setup on a trailer. For a couple grand, they come to you and blast your car with water and sand right there in your yard.

I have used chemical strippers in the past. Back around 2002, you could buy aerosol cans at autozone. Spray it on the car, paint bubbled off. You wiped it away to show bare metal. I went looking for some a couple months back and didn't see any. No clue if they still make it.

Angle grinder with different attachments. The rigid foam spongy paint stripper discs work well. Some guys had good things to say about the 3M discs with a bunch of little fingers on them. Caveat being that spinning discs have a radius. They cannot get into tight corners.

There are places that will soak larger parts or the entire car in some substance. Kinda depends on how bit your parts are if its feasible to do at home or not. This dude below has a cow trough full of molasses at his house. I used some evaporust from HF and soaked some parts and it hook them down to bare metal. That probably doesn't scale very well if you need to strip an entire car.

I don't trust myself to properly blast an entire car, and unfortunately there aren't any mobile guys within 45+ minutes of me otherwise that would be a good solution. I have heard a lot about the spongy stripper discs, it will most likely be the avenue I take with an angle grinder since they are cheaper. Tight areas are gonna suc though.

If you're on a budget Harbor Freight sells this: https://www.harborfreight.com/9-amp-surface-conditioning-tool-58079.html It's not going to get into all the crevices and corners, but it'll do a number on the large surfaces.

Saw some of those in use and they seem pretty nice, although I am going to try out an angle grinder first, since there is quite the price jump.

Thanks all.

 

[Hemikiller]

I stripped the exterior of my 71 to bare metal by hand, using a combination of a DA and paint stripper. Engine compartment and front clip was done with a Harbor Freight pressure pot sandblaster. Underside was done with flap discs and wire wheels. I was very happy with the results, but if I were to do another car, I'd pay a mobile blaster or bring it to someone. They do need to understand to NOT dry-blast the exterior metal, as it'll warp the ever loving snot out of it. I wouldn't care if it was a two hour drive each way, it's still better than doing that job yourself. The time you'll save and the beauty of working on clean sheet metal far outweighs the hassle or financial cost of having the job done. Get a rotisseries, get it blasted and enjoy working on it, not dreading another day of slogging through sand, dust and chemicals.

 

[giantpune]

I wouldn't care if it was a two hour drive each way, it's still better than doing that job yourself.

Can not be understated. Stripping a whole car using stuff you get from HF is gonna be measured in tens of hours. If you compare the two options, pulling the car up onto a trailer and then sitting in the AC as you drive it a few hours away is a cakewalk.