guys and gals, since the weather is getting warmer, and there have been a lot of threads recently about paint/body work, i decided to take a bunch of photos of today's project and write up a quick article. it's not difficult, but it can be intimidating so i feel that it's worth it.
alright, long story short, my buddy picked up an 03 mustang for a great price recently, and the only problem with the car was the paint on the hood. he talked to my dad who agreed to take car of the paint for him, and since i am out of work, i volunteered to do some of the prep.
The paint on this hood was so messed up we decided the best course of action would be to get it down to the gel coat and start over. (aka, the right way to do it)
step one is getting the panel onto a solid working area (i used a bodywork stand but a small table will work) In the following pictures you will see the stand, as well as the condition the hood was in when i started. it seems the previous owner tried waxing it with a Brillo pad, but thankfully he stopped after the hood.
the next step is to gather all the needed supplies
1. bottle of paint stripper (specifically for automotive or aircraft paint removal)
2. mixing cup
3. scraper (i prefer the squeegee because it won't damage the panel)
4. cheap paintbrushes (i paid 90 cents each for 2 inch wide brushes from home depot)
5. masking tape, any will work, mine is blue
6. GLOVES, GLOVES, AND MORE GLOVES. this stuff is evil, you don't want it on your hands.
once you have everything set up, you are at the step where you will be taping things off. i taped all the holes in the hood, as well as the edges because we ARE NOT painting the bottom of the hood, and i didn't want the stripper to work its way around to the bottom. if you want the entire panel stripped, then you can skip this step.
when you have reached your desired level of masking, you are ready to start, at this point, follow the instructions from whatever brand of stripper you buy. with mine, it was one thick coat, while taking care to brush in one direction.
after a short time you will begin to see it work........
simply let the paint stripper work its magic, and then use the scraper to pull the flaking paint off the hood, i put a garbage can under my stand and just scraped straight into it. More than one application may be necessary, but make sure to get all of one coat off before applying another.
when i finished i washed thoroughly with warm soapy water to get (hopefully) all the chemical residue off of the hood, and then threw on a light coat of primer, and once it drys it will be ready to go over to the shop for finishing prep and paint......
thanks for reading this extremely long post, and i hope it is able to help someone in the future.
one last thing i would like to say, is please dont post or pm asking about getting this or other paint/body work done, as i am not a sponsor, i did this to help out the DIY folks. please send any of those questions to paul at rpm.
thanks,
mike
im just as far
