Re-painting prep

Post by **yellowpinky** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:04 pm

I am planning to re-paint my van but was wondering what would be the best/quick and easy machine/tool for rubbing down the bodywork? The area that concerns me is the roof, which has deep cracks in the paint. Shall I remove all the paint or fill the cracks?? So far I'm thinking angle grinder with rubber disc pad and fine sand paper.......

Post by **bmcecosse** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:09 pm

You will need to remove the paint - but I wonder what's underneath! May be better to use Nitromors on it - rather than a disc which may heat/stretch the metal. You'll be a while with 'fine sand paper' anyway!

Post by **alex_holden** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:38 pm

Angle grinder "stripper discs" are good for going back to bare metal. They really rip through paint and rust without gouging good steel. I bought one in Halfords recently but they are probably available cheaper online if you shop around.

Post by **kennatt** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:09 am

deep cracks in the paint are normally due to the area being repainted several times ,the paint gets too thick and shrinkage of the layers underneath cause the cracks to form on the outer layer. Filling is generally not very good since the underlying problem still exists.Stripping back to metal is the only way to prevent further shrinkages.Nitromores will take off layer by layer.last time I did the same job I used a random orbital sander,and nitromores.Sanded each layer to remove the top and then the nitromores works better ,it bites into the under layer better. Be sure to wash off each time or you will have nitromors flying everywhere , Long messy job but the only way to go I'm afraid.Good luck with it