Paint question for those in the know. Lacquer no Bueno, but typical BC/CC too shiny. JMO. Advice please...

[jadigen]

i don't think you want to use a flattner... if you want more of a OEM finish then you'll want to spray it a little dryer and get some orange peel in it. you can flatten it some in the buffing process. i'd go BC/CC and make it as glossy as possible if it were mine though. make it like it should have been not like a crappy factory rush job.

 

[69hurstolds]

i don't think you want to use a flattner... if you want more of a OEM finish then you'll want to spray it a little dryer and get some orange peel in it. you can flatten it some in the buffing process. i'd go BC/CC and make it as glossy as possible if it were mine though. make it like it should have been not like a crappy factory rush job.

I get what you're saying. But as fleming442 was mentioning, that would be kind of "over-restoring" it. Although, it may not make much of a difference at this point. Some of the restored cars I've seen don't even look as sloppily good as originals. They're too perfect. And besides, other than 88hurstolds, I don't see anyone aspiring to make their G-body look factory fresh. If I'm missing anyone here, speak up.

My goal is to try and get it as close as looking like it rolled off the end of the assembly line as I can. I've got most of the GM parts new, so why not? My hands may get tied along the way on certain things, and that's ok. I'll just have to do the best I can with what's available. Hell, by that time, there may only be 3 or 4 people left in the world that would even care what they looked like new.

 

[motorheadmike]

While we're at it, what does anyone think of these plastic bead blasting places that strips paint off car bodies? A while back I was at a powdercoating place and they had a complete 70s Nova body in the area and it was stripped CLEAN. The windows were still in it, but no chrome or trim. Guy told me that they used plastic beads (felt like uncooked grits- if you don't know what grits are, you're not from the south; it's ground corn). He said it's effective in removing paint layers but won't remove body lead, or skimmed body filler, or any of that. The plastic apparently doesn't warp the metal or scratch it. It just seemed weird to me. I don't know much about this plastic bead blast stuff. I've seen soda blasting, but plastic?

Just a thought. I don't want to imagine myself holding on to a DA sander for hours at a time and having to deal with the arm vibration recovery time. Seeing what some of you have done with sanding huge parts of the car, it may be more cost effective for my old azz to bead the body.

Thoughts?

It is just a question of material density. The plastic is just softer than the stuff it won't remove, the soda (sodium bicarbonate particles) is going to be significantly more dense, and water just becomes a form of irrigation once pressurized. I have a new hate for lacquer paint for all the reasons you've listed - I do have a sweet peak on my right bicep now since using the clean and strip discs for days on end.

 

[69hurstolds]

It is just a question of material density. The plastic is just softer than the stuff it won't remove, the soda (sodium bicarbonate particles) is going to be significantly more dense, and water just becomes a form of irrigation once pressurized. I have a new hate for lacquer paint for all the reasons you've listed - I do have a sweet peak on my right bicep now since using the clean and strip discs for days on end.

Yo dawg! I heard you like muscles, so I put some muscles on your muscles, so you can flex your muscles on top of your muscles!

 

[08Malibu]

I managed to strip the nose of my car with a razor scraper. Took me 20 minutes to do half the hood after I got the right angle. Then I long boarded it with 40,80,180, then 220. The rest of the body is original paint so it’ll be a little harder than the cracked paint that was on the nose.