Does anyone know how long you can leave bare metal exposed? The bloke who wants to paint my car wants to key it and respray,but i reckon strip it back to bare metal would be better,do it right the first time round! But its going to be such a tedious job. I know there's been a lot of talk on paint stripper but surely there's a easier way? Who's been there done that and how did you do it!!! Thanks for any input...

I am no expert but anything more then half a day surface rust will start to form unless you protect the bare metal and I would do that ASAP.

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Roundies Rule !!!

Stripped the Moke using wire wheel on an angle grinder. The longest any part was bare was a week. Even if you just put some primer on as you take panels back it will keep it from flashing off.

After I finished taking all back i went over it again with 360 grit to take any flash and primer off.

Someone suggested red oxide it before going to paint shop,then he was going to 2pac over that would that be alright?????

not sure how it would adhere to the red oxide, remember bare metal is a hell of alot of work, and if u are paying sumone, it will greatly increase your bill

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-jamie-
1963morris 850
1965 solid side van
1994 rover racecar

If you clean up and apply WD40 or CRC or something similar soon as...should stay good for a year

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"Show me the Mini!"

paint stripper is really the way to go, its not as bad as it sounds. get some really coarse 40 - 80 grit sand paper and score the hell out of the paint, cross hatching works well. slop heaps of good industrial paint stripper and wrap up with gladwrap and leave it overnight. you could do the outside in a day.
whats the story with your resto, are you doing a bare shell build?

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

I would have thought that cling wrap would be melted by the paint stripper or is this not the case.

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Roundies Rule !!!

my mini's been sitting in bare metal for the last month and it's been fine jsut 3 cans of WD40 i sprayed all over as soon as i stripped it and havent touched it since. in the stripping area i bought some septone paint stripper in those small tins but in the end i just got a HUGE can of it the 4L one i think and it lasted for all of the car plus some spare still. i put the paint stripper on over night covered in glad wrap to keep it moist and used a wire wheel on an angle grinder teh next day and it just comes right off. make sure u have some kinda maks when u put the septone stuff on if u use it cause it has really strong fumes

cheers

when i did it it melted a bit to the paint but cause it was all flakes but the morning when u peeled it off it just took off some flakes which made the job easier anyway

Thanks,guys i'll give the red oxide a miss and use a good etch primer then 2pac primer,and to answer someones question ,,,,,doing a total rebuild ground up on my mk1 cooper s,i'm going to paint it original colour which isn't to flash, real light blue i think its Jay blue with a snow white roof..cheers

give upto 3 coats of etch primer if its going to be sitting around for a while. etch primer needs upto 3 coats to seal up its pores and keep surface rust out.
i had the front end in bare metal for a week before anything showed up, that was stripped with paint stripper and a festo oribital sander, i never went the wd40 way, personaly i wouldnt put anything on the car which may react with the painting process later.
(before people get on the defensive, i know you can clean the stuff off....but to me its A: another job to do and B: risky)

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

yep I agree with the no wd40 - just adds more work

Yeahbut...for those of us out there who don't know one end of a spray gun or can it can buy you time...which most of us have.

Alls you need to do is hit the WD with phosphoric a couple of times just before you prime....then get the paint on quick.

Products like Deoxidene or De-ox-it etc are meant to be diluted...50/50 to start with used sparingly gets the WD off then maybe 2-3 other applications at 70/30 then finaly only 10% acid stuff.

A proper respirator/face mask is a must.

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"Show me the Mini!"

We Kazjim and I did my last Clubbie, we had the roof and around the rear seams back to baremetal.

We had surface rust appear overnight.

Depends on the environment the car is in really, at the time we were doing the clubbie it really was quite humid at a lot of stages.

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No more Minis!......For now.