Sanded right through the metal

603mustangs

Advanced Member
Sep 19, 2016
249
140
73
New Hampshire
Never attempted to paint a car the right way. I immediately hit metal using 80 grit, didn't expect that doing it by hand. If I use an orbital sander am I going to create thin spots in the metal with 80 grit? I do want to take my time and do it right, but I don't have a lot of spare time, nights and weekends. Will the bare metal start rusting in-between days working on it? I also keep staring at the word mustang sunken in on the rear bumper, any tricks to sanding that without ruining the sharp edges of the letters?
 
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If the only paint on the car is the factory 80 grit is complete overkill to remove it. It's thin and comes off easily w 160/200 grit. Yes if the weather is such that water condenses on the bare metal it will rust. use paint stripper on the bumper letters.
 
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If the only paint on the car is the factory 80 grit is complete overkill to remove it. It's thin and comes off easily w 160/200 grit. Yes if the weather is such that water condenses on the bare metal it will rust. use paint stripper on the bumper letters.
It's in my garage, b won't
You're in New Hampshire, it's gonna start to rust in about 20 min
On quiet nights in New Hampshire you can hear the Fords rusting
 
Wrapping it is new technology, if I was 20 something probably. I'd paint it because it's what I know, sort of. Myself, I'd take pride in hours, years, of sanding and wet sanding to see a mirror black finish on my LX.

I'm over that :poo:. To do a paint job right, you have to pull all the rubber and glass. Old rubber doesn't seal when you put it back in. The new stuff you get from LMR is made in China, and it doesn't seal right either. I have had so many friends piss their money down the tube going for a perfect paint job. $10k and the car leaks like a collander. The point is that we are now passed the point of "doing it right" on these old cars. That quality replacement parts to do it right don't exist anymore. Things have changed a lot in the last 10 years. The vinyl they have now is so damn good, it's almost as good as a new paint job. Pay someone one time to shrink the vinyl on, and tuck the edges under the existing rubber in one day, and you can hardly notice the difference, and it's 1/3rd the cost at most. Get a chip or a tear in the vinyl, pull that one panel, and shrink a new sheet on.

Kurt
 
We called it black glue, it's commercial roofing adhesive. All that black neoprene, polyurethane, urethane, pvc found in cars, been using it on commercial and industrial roofs for years. Auto body shop stuck my door trim on with that doubled sided foam tape on my F350 after an accident was peeling off less than a month later. Put that seam tape on, it can't be removed. It's the equivalent to welded steel, just doesn't pull apart. They don't sell rubber roof products in small quantities. The cleaner, primer, and seam tape is about $600 minimum quantities, a car would use $1 of that. If you know a roofer use that. It's a permanent bond
 
So......using 80 grit on the car? Kind of like using a .338 lupa round on squirrels, maybe a little much.....but, no, you’re not going to wear a hole in the metal.

Use 80 grit to help prep the metal for bondo. Though if it’s a large area you’ll be muddying up you should actually go heavier, like 50grit.

80 is good for stripping paint off, though when I use it I will not completely strip the paint. Just to speed up the removal of several layers of paint. When I see signs of bare metal I’ll switch to 180.

Bare metal will rust really, really fast. When your working with thin metal like sheet metal, you’ll want to cover it with something fairly quick. Have a rattle can of etch primer that you can spray on the bare metal right after you’re done doing what you were wanting to do.

It‘s nothing more than a metal protectant at that stage, not a filler or anything of the sort.

As for the bumper? I have a cheap handheld sandblaster that I got from HF. I’ll use media like baking soda or crushed walnut shells for blasting plastic. Don’t use sand, it’ll eat into the plastic. You don’t need a huge compressor to run it either.

I use it at work as well for those pita bumpers that are repaired and have all of those little angles that your fingers and sandpaper can never get in to.
 
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Thanks for the info, I figured as much and stopped. Some tutorial video said start with 80. I thought 80 was a bit much, the car is going to look the dude's car if I keep going. The paint is paper thin, clear coat is gone, really flat faded red.
 
We called it black glue, it's commercial roofing adhesive. All that black neoprene, polyurethane, urethane, pvc found in cars, been using it on commercial and industrial roofs for years. Auto body shop stuck my door trim on with that doubled sided foam tape on my F350 after an accident was peeling off less than a month later. Put that seam tape on, it can't be removed. It's the equivalent to welded steel, just doesn't pull apart. They don't sell rubber roof products in small quantities. The cleaner, primer, and seam tape is about $600 minimum quantities, a car would use $1 of that. If you know a roofer use that. It's a permanent bond
So......using 80 grit on the car? Kind of like using a .338 lupa round on squirrels, maybe a little much.....but, no, you’re not going to wear a hole in the metal.

Use 80 grit to help prep the metal for bondo. Though if it’s a large area you’ll be muddying up you should actually go heavier, like 50grit.

80 is good for stripping paint off, though when I use it I will not completely strip the paint. Just to speed up the removal of several layers of paint. When I see signs of bare metal I’ll switch to 180.

Bare metal will rust really, really fast. When your working with thin metal like sheet metal, you’ll want to cover it with something fairly quick. Have a rattle can of etch primer that you can spray on the bare metal right after you’re done doing what you were wanting to do.

It‘s nothing more than a metal protectant at that stage, not a filler or anything of the sort.

As for the bumper? I have a cheap handheld sandblaster that I got from HF. I’ll use media like baking soda or crushed walnut shells for blasting plastic. Don’t use sand, it’ll eat into the plastic. You don’t need a huge compressor to run it either.

I use it at work as well for those pita bumpers that are repaired and have all of those little angles that your fingers and sandpaper can never get in to.
I'm being serious, I really don't know and have always wondered. Why couldn't I paint the car black with spray paint, say rust-oleum, wet sand it like real PPG auto paint, then get real actual auto clear coat and buff that to a mirror finish? It seems to me the black is like a picture behind glass in a frame. Dirty glass dirty picture, clean the glass, picture looks brand new.
 
I'm being serious, I really don't know and have always wondered. Why couldn't I paint the car black with spray paint, say rust-oleum, wet sand it like real PPG auto paint, then get real actual auto clear coat and buff that to a mirror finish? It seems to me the black is like a picture behind glass in a frame. Dirty glass dirty picture, clean the glass, picture looks brand new.

Put in your chemist's hat. Here it comes...