I'd like an opinion on a good friend (he is also one of my wood customers) of mines project. It is a 1974 VW Thing restoration. He has already had some of the panelized metal parts replaced with OEM steel and now is at the tipping point of how to prep. this "thing" for paint (sorry, couldn't help myself). He had a local dipping company lined up but they are now out of business. He already had the chassis rebuilt and it is done in a moisture cured epoxy. He did have that sand blasted before doing it. Looks great.... Now with this body it looks to me like a DA type strip would be a pain in the butt (all those raised square channels, ugh) and chemical hand stripping would not be much faster. I'm thinking he might be just as well off blasting the rest of this body for prep..... There is a crap paint over the original paint so not super thick...... Here's some pics. what do you guys think?

hi I use to have one of those, great car. from the pictures it looks like he has replaced the rocker panels, that was the major rust area. is there more rust anywhere ? the body in the pictures look good for rust. I would try and find someone that blasts with plastic or walnut shells or some other soft media, that's if there is no rust. these types of media are less prone to warping your metal and are excilent for just paint removal. i'd be really worried about using sand or should I say the sand operator, those bodies are tough but a unknowledgeable blaster can destroy one in no time.
Jay D.

I would give the heat gun and razor blade technique a try first.
Also dismantle the small panels and put them in my blast cabinet.
Paint stripper only where needed.

Yeah, you are both on the same track that I was thinking of.... and nope, none of the rest of the rust is deep at all. Everything left is pretty solid. If it was me I'd at least try the heat gun/scrape method. Knowing him though he's probably going to send it out. I'll talk more with him about the capability of his blast guy. That deformable plastic media can do some awesome work in the right hands..... It's funny I grew up around these Things when I was in high school/college and they are still very popular around here. He has literally had to take 3 of these cars to build this one though. Oh, well, he'll have plenty of parts to sell off at the end of it......

Is he wanting to strip the inside area , engine compartment and under the front hood? if just doing the outside then a 3M Clean & Strip disc in an 8" dia. on an air sander. I use them with a soft back up pad and they work great, the soft pad allows you to bend it around different contours they also leave a very nice profile for your primer coating.
Jay D.

Well, I'm not sure but yes, he was hoping to have it down to metal everywhere as far as I know. I'll be talking to him in a day or so and tell him what was said here and get some more input from him on direction....