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Strip or not to strip..................

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t_bush

t_bush

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I am checking the group mind here while I try to decide if I should strip my car to bare metal or to paint over the existing paint.
The original paint was top coated once before. It is a thin coat and is easily sanded off. Underneath the original paint is adhering quite very well. There are no rust holes. No flaking. There is some surface rust where there was a deep scratch in the paint. I have a dozen or so door ding size dents to deal with. No major dents.
The original paint has spider web cracks on the upper surfaces. Very fine ones. Some sand out. They are the result of sitting out in the Texas sun for a number of years. UV damage and temperature cycling. I can rub and buff out the original paint to look very good. You do not notice the webbing unless you are looking right up to the paint.
If I strip the car to bare metal I will be on a ticking clock. I have to get it blasted and neutralized. Take it to be epoxied. Fill the dings. Get it primed, sanded, and top coated all with in a few days time. It will mean rushing everything.
If I paint over I can work on the dings and spot prime without the rush. Then high fill prime and top coat.
Any thoughts? I am not looking for a show quality paint job, more of a new car quality job.
- Tim
 
Hey Tim,
I'm not a paint guy but can relate what happened after I tried to keep the
original paint on a 47 MG TC. I had to redo some major areas of the front
fenders due to the paint actually flaking off. Took those areas down to
sheet metal and in some cases new body filler for old dents. On the areas
where I had minor cracks as you describe, my painter felt he could prep them
properly and just paint over. Well, he put down a very nice red and then color
sanded everything. Looked absolutely great for a while, but then some of the
minor spider web cracks came back. Guess after the paint had fully dried, etc,
some of the cracks just reappeared. Like I said, I'm not a paint guy and my
painter would have redone, but car was up for sale so simply let the buyer
know and he could deal with it later if so desired. The area where he went
down to bare metal turned out great and stayed that way. Know this doesn't
necessarily answer your question but know how I would handle it next time-
strip it down !
Good luck,
Mike
 
If you have any signs of shrinkage (spider webbing, etc) then your chances of it reappearing later if you paint over are quite high. No matter how weel you think you have sanded or filled those cracks, they really are not good enough, at least not until you actually get so close to base metal that it just makes sense to finish it. If you really want it to look nice for the long term, strip it.
 
Tim... you're doing this yourself?

If so, do it as a "panel job". ie, strip and epoxy prime each piece as you go. Fillers will be fine over a roughed up minor ding. I like "AllMetal" for that.

If you apply paint over old paint it WILL give you grief.
 
Do you use All Metal for the entire ding or do use bondo type filler over the All Metal? I thought that ALL Metal was very difficult to sand and therefore filler is applied over the All Metal.
 
Hi Tim,
Everything including paint has a usable life before it starts to break down. Do you really want to spend all of your hard earned time and money building a quality finish on a uncertain foundation. If it does fail you are back to removing everything anyways,not to mention the extra expense. I have never regretted a strip and refinish. I have ALWAYS regretted saving someones old paint,trying to feather old paint,old body work,waiting for the dreaded shrinkage into old work. Sounds like you understand how to do it right,look at it as a investment. You can cheat it ,but in the end you will only cheat yourself.

Good luck.
 
I use AllMetal exclusively (on steel cars). For ~minor~ surface imperfections after blocking I like "porpoise poop" (U-Pol Dolphin Glaze). And I stick with Valspar for the various paints.
 
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