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That pad is to aggressive for a DA its at least 7-8 inches across

Doright wrote:That pad is to aggressive for a DA its at least 7-8 inches across

I used one of those 3m stripping discs before with my die grinder, but I think it was only a 3" pad, anyways I think it still took awhile, and used a ton of air(cheap harbor freight tool). I have an 80 gallon air compressor too.

I have a Chicago electric angle grinder that I think is a 5" disc type grinder, do they make those pads for that?

Using my harbor freight DA, and 80grit 5" sandpaper, it takes forever to strip down to metal, the car appears to have 2 coats of paint.

none of those are good choices
harbor fright has 2 electric variable speed buffers one for $40 and another for 10-20 bucks more. that's what you should use you wanna be able to control the speed, you want slow turn the Pad too fast and it will just melt they cost too much for that! the Pad alone is over $20 closer to $30 depending where you get them. They are also not easy to find.

Doright wrote:none of those are good choices
harbor fright has 2 electric variable speed buffers one for $40 and another for 10-20 bucks more. that's what you should use you wanna be able to control the speed, you want slow turn the Pad too fast and it will just melt they cost too much for that! the Pad alone is over $20 closer to $30 depending where you get them. They are also not easy to find.

So today it took,me about 4 hours to sand down the door to bare metal using the 3m Gray paint stripper disc on my die grinder.

The door had 3 coats of paint though, so I don't know if that's why. The last coat of paint must be the original and well I don't know if it's a different type of paint but it takes so much longer to grind off than the top 2 layers.


Also during the grinding a few drops of water fell from my die grinder on to some filler I had on the bottom of the door and I don't know how bad that is, it was overcoat rage gold. Did the drops of water ruin the filler?

After I noticed the water I wiped it up and then taped it to protect it.

You're fine. No need to panic. Just make sure everythings dry. Before you seal it in.

If all you have is a DA it should not take 4 hours to strip a door. Put some 40 grit on it, lock the DA on grind mode and strip most of the paint, leaving some to avoid excessive gouging of the metal. Now switch to 80 grit and unlock the DA to remove the rest. As soon as paper stops cutting well I toss it. Paper is cheaper than my time.

ScottB wrote:If all you have is a DA it should not take 4 hours to strip a door. Put some 40 grit on it, lock the DA on grind mode and strip most of the paint, leaving some to avoid excessive gouging of the metal. Now switch to 80 grit and unlock the DA to remove the rest. As soon as paper stops cutting well I toss it. Paper is cheaper than my time.

I'll give that a try for the rest of the car, thanks.

What's your experience with the 3m paint stripper discs? That's what I used on the door, but you see in my pictures the very top area I didn't get to yet, so I don't think I can lock the DA to grind it there, too close to body lines?

How do you add the wheel well lips/Arches/bends when you hand hand the patches and are now doing filler work?

Here's the other side that didn't need patching in the wheel wel lip area. There's a body line but it's generally covered up by a piece of trim.