1963 Comet Grinder Gouges on door.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 9:52 am
Hi, brand new to the forum.

I have a 1963 Mercury Comet I am restoring. There is one coat of red paint and primer and then the original black paint and primer.

My first step is to take the entire body down to bare metal. I saw a video of a guy use an angle grinder with a flap disc and grind off the paint and primer. I had some 80 grit flap disc so I tried the same thing. I ended up with grinder gouges at the end. Luckily I only did it to the door and not the entire car.

JCB_3317_HDR.jpeg


On the lower part of the door I used a DA sander and a block sander with 80 grit paper and got most of the gouges out.



My question is how far do you sand down to get the gouges out and when do you decide to use body filler.

Also, do you think this EASTWOOD CONTOUR SCT® SURFACE CONDITIONING TOOL would be a good thing to work on the gouges and then strip the rest of the paint.

Screen Shot 2021-03-21 at 8.46.19 AM.png


Thanks

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 5:03 pm
Get a media blaster and save your metal.

Here you can see a stripped fender being DA'd with 80 grit in preparation for epoxy primer.
DA 80 Grit over blasted metal.JPG
1968 Coronet R/T


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 5:09 pm
Welcome JCBond,

I'm a beginner and learning here as well. I would say one thing that helped me understand some of the things needed to be done was read the How to at the top of the forum. It really explained the sanding process and what goes on. You say you used the flap wheel and then a DA with the same grit, the flap disk will not let you keep the surface smooth as a DA will so I would say away from the flap disk for all of the work. They do help in the hard to reach areas and for metal work smoothing.
If you read the how to you will find that scratches are ok you just need to go finer grit to smooth the tops of the scratches off.

Again, I'm a beginner and hopefully I have given OK advice, but do take what the experienced posters here say as the real deal because they have been there done that and we all learn from each others experiences.

Good luck and keep us posted.

TX
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:06 pm
'68 is spot on when he suggests a media blaster for future stripping.

We don't know how deep your gouges are but I've used those flap disks and put a hole right through the metal, so they're fairly aggressive. You have to make the call but I'd be filling before trying to sand out deep gouge marks.
Chris



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PostPosted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:28 pm
https://www.toolsid.com/astro-pneumatic ... 9-3oPfC7wI
a grinder is to fast, to many rpm's. get one of these and use an 8" soft pad with 8" 36 grit sticky discs, or use the 8" black cleaner pads https://www.eastwood.com/cleaning-disc- ... gJgtvD_BwE
you'll be able to strip the car in a few hours maybe longer depends on how hard you work at it. that door would take 10-15 min with the 36 grit disc, i like to use the 36 grit then the cleaning disc. https://buymirka.com/products/mirka-8-s ... oduct_sync
shop around these items are priced all over the place.
Jay D.
they say my name is Jay



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2021 7:25 am
Paint strip discs work very well without damaging metal, as well.
https://www.lehighvalleyabrasives.com/c ... -cs4-5-crs

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2021 7:32 am
I find that a regular buffer with 80 grit is very fast and cheap.
JC.

(It's not custom painting-it's custom sanding)

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2021 8:27 am
To give y'all and idea of how fast and nice of a job media blasting produces. This section of the car took about 1 hour. It is way faster and cleaner than I could ever do by sanding.
Left Inner Fender.JPG


Obviously flatter surfaces with go much quicker as this fender took about 20 minutes:
Fender Right Media Blasted.JPG


The thing with media blasting that is unpleasant is that it hot and dirty work. Wearing a hood, gloves and protective clothing, etc.
1968 Coronet R/T


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:05 pm
I do a lot of media blasting with very fine crushed glass on most every thing EXCEPT Body Panels! Body Panels I strip with the an 7-8 inch 3M Stripping pad similar to the other ones already linked here on the thread with a Variable speed buffer, I also use a DA with either 40-80 grit just depends on what I am cleaning.
Just me BUT You cant be to anal about NOT over heating and damaging your Skins!
Rust, Dents, dings, old slide hammer repairs and collision damage are all fun enough to repair don't need to add to the damage with Blasting.
The 3M Stripping pads I use make light work of Paint and filler in short order they are worth the expense and the extra time they take over Blasting.

Each tool and process has its strengths each has its down falls. That's why I use ALL of the processes each for its strengths where its best to use each.
Only real tool that really is capable of doing it all is media blasting BUT its messy miserable and you need expensive equipment and expensive multiple different types of media material to do the job correctly. Soda blasting is very effective very forgiving material. I would use it IF I could get it for a max of $15 a bag, But last I checked they wanted $45-$50 for 50lb bags. That's not gonna happen in my shop! I don't know any one that can afford that.

Media is really expensive and unless you have a way of recovering it to reclaim and reuse the material after screening your throwing money away. Add to it if you Use the wrong media or the wrong pressure or get to close to the panel or stay in one area too long you'll destroy a Panel forever!
Use all of them, know when & where to use each one to its most effective use! That comes from experience using each one.

I NEVER use a Flap disk for stripping NEVER! A flap disk is for metal conditioning ONLY not paint stripping or cleaning. Their great for sanding down Weld bead and other deformity but stripping paint isnt one of their strengths not on body panels!
The only thing you can do to repair the damage caused by its use is filler.
Dennis B.
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