paint stripping

[Josh]

anyone know of a good way to remove the paint from an M? I was thinking ice or glass bead blasting for the body, and sand for the frame... Any thoughts from thsoe who have been here and done that?

[ELBUFO]

This is out there but... A buddy of mine has had Willys envy for 30 years. He has been talking about getting an old flat fender for years. Well he finally got one a couple of years ago. Somewhere in Portland ORE., He found a place with a hot tank that could handle the body all at once. The frame needed to be dunked twice one end and then the other. It was quick. Blasting is a mess. Beads will leave a smoother surface than sand if the grits are the same. I am just thankful that the paint job on my "M" is decent even if it is 3 colors thick. Enjoy...John

[knattrass]

Might be a dirty job, but we had a 5hp power washer, applied chemical stripper from Home Depot ($24/can). We let it set for about 10 minutes, then blasted it into the empty lot next door. We peeled off 5 layers in one pass - messy thou. Grass won't be growing next door until 2015 we figure. We then had a guy sandblast to the metal. Saved big expense in blasting.

[Tom @ Snake River]

Media blasting is the way to go. Gets everything right down to the bear metal, then you can do the welding and body work as needed.
I hardly lifted a piece of sand paper on my last project. (WC-51) Life is too short to have to sand and still tring to feather several layers of paint.
Tom @ Snake River

[Mac]

I started sanding mine....Didn't work....Then I spent a long long time using airplane remover to strip off 1-2 layers at a time....didn't work well....tried to just get it down to a nice green and get most of the red off and finally gave up! I took it to someone else who finished sanding it and painting it---

I vote best way to go is let someone else mess with it! Now that I have a sandblaster though that is deffinately the way I wish I had gone

[CGarbee]

I usually sandblast although I have been known to just scuff sand (on one extreme) or use a DA sander (a bit more agressive) depending on the condition of the existing paint and metal... I find that a combination of approaches usually work best.

That said, I recently found out that there is a place not that far from me that provides a chemical dipping service for the removal of paint, bondo, rust, etc. They can handle complete cabs, beds, fenders, frames, etc... When they are done dipping, they coat the steel with Ospho so that it doesn't flash rust back on you before you get to work on it (a good thing considering how high the humidity runs in my area...). You might have something similar in your area. From a time, effort, expense proposition, it's hard to beat (and they get the old paint out of every crack and crevice...). See:
http://www.chem-strip.com/services.asp

Good luck.

[knattrass]

Spent my youthful years working at a place that "dipped". There is a cold dip which is basically a large vat of stripper. There is also a heated vat used mainly for wood furniture. We dipped a whole MG in the hot one time and ended up fishing the major pieces out with a rake. Be careful what you ask for and remember that the sludge of the chemical stippers gets stuck everywhere and will continue to leech out over time and affect the paint. I had a huge bill to sandblast 6 layers off my box ($550) because the paint thickness - he had to use crushed lava. We blasted off 5 layers on the cab using the stripper/power washer combo for about $22 (1 gal stripper). We then had it sandblasted for about $80. We did the rest of the parts with that one-two punch. We did not use one piece of sandpaper.

[Rick C]

I was told by an old timer to just get it down to the original military paint. He said that stuff would never come off..... I used stripper and sanding to do this and my paint's been on 5 years without a problem. I have to admit that on my M38 as well as some M37 parts I did pay a sandblaster to clean them up.
Rick C

[DAP]

Pressure wash first to remove big chunks and dried undercoating. Use the sandblaster attachment that you can buy from Northern Tools on the end of your pressure washer for the next pass. Make sure you use blasting sand not play sand (play sand clogs the nozzle). Iwater + Sand = no dust sso no lung issue then. f you aren't down to bare steel at least you have removed all the heavy stuff and maybe 6 of the 10 layers of paint. Then if you want to take it to a blaster - will be mucy cheaper

[Josh]

thanks for the replies guys. My dad is going to give me his air tools (compressor, sandblaster, etc) since he never uses them, so I'm definately all set in the media blasting tools department. I might experiment with ground walnut shells, or plastic beads, since its supposed to be much gentler on the metal. Has anyone here had an issue with sandblasting pitting or warping panels? I would think the M would be one of the last vehicles on the earth that you would have to worry about this with, but I have a rust free body that I woudl hate to ruin by sandblasting.