[Herrorhh]

OK Guy/Gals... I'm a technician by trade not a body man so excuse me for asking silly questions. I've got a 69 GTO as seen in the garage section...Currently I have the body off the frame and in process of repairing / replacing parts on the chassis. The body is outside under a tarp. In reading alot of different post here, and other places, as I am on one stage of a rebuild my mind is on some of the details of the next stage and preparing for it. So here is my problem...My GTO has multiple problem areas, it was a junkyard save. The trunk pans need to be replaced as do the floor pans, lower lip of the windshield seat left front cowl panel ect. It has rust on the roof, inside under the dash, around, under, and in-between everything. I have asked my local bodyshops, looked in the phone book, internet searches ect looking for a shop to sand, media, soda blast the body...I have found nobody within a reasonable distance that would do it. So I need to learn to do it myself. I read posts about all of the above methods of cleaning the body and different ways to "seal" , "encapsulate", the rust but it seems that the more I read the more opinions I see...Soda blasting being good because it is biodegradable. Media blasting because it is less harsh on a metal panel. Sand because it is the best wat to remove visible rust. Acid dip is the best to remove all of the rust in all areas... Then to top it all off I get confused between "etching primer", "epoxy primer", and the gambit of other products...Eastwood, POR-15, PPG DTR90... Is there a central location any where that has reference information for this confusion? An example of my confusion...My roof has what I concider moderate rust. It is pitted. If I were to soda/media blast it, it wont take the rust to bare metal so I would need to sand blast it. After sand blasting I would need to either etch prime or Eastwood coat it to seal it from rusting again 5 years down the road, but being pitted I would think it needs to be filled and from what I read bondo/body filler adhears best to bare metal. I understand that most of the repair panels I will use are e-coated but that it needs to be removed for some primers/coatings to be effective...Which means blasting it again and re-etching/coating??!! I am truly at a loss. Are there any instructions ya'll have. My wife says they better have real good pictures...

[400 4spd.]

Let me add to your confusion. You can take several paths, depending on what your final goal is and whether your finances allow you to reach that goal. And for each path there will be varying opinions on what methods and products to use. Most of us here (that do this kind of stuff) lean towards PPG products, so you will probably get more info. and experience related to using those products. Some also like to use the rust encapsulators and POR products and skip the blasting and acid treatments.
Basically what I'm saying is that some of us differ on what are the "right" and "wrong" ways to get that rusted hulk into new paint. Regardless of that, educate yourself on the products you choose to go with, be sure they are compatible, and FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS.
Regarding what your goals are,
Do you want to achieve a fairly nice "driver" that you are willing to compromise on?
Are you looking to make a super nice driver/local show winner out of it?
Are going to go modified on the drivetrain, interior or paint?
Are you after the numbers matching, totally original appearing, NOS parts, cash eating obsession-driven perfect car?

Unless you are a total pessimist, accept the fact that you will spend much more than you though you would.
Also be willing to accept that the money and sweat you pour into the car may never be recovered if you sell it.

[78 GHOST]

Stripping metal yourself will require a decent sized compressor and the appropriate rig for blasting. A 33 gallon Sears special will probably not fit the bill for serious blasting.

Blasting with abrasive media won't work on sheet metal. The basic rule is that if you can ding/dent/or oilcan the metal by hand, it's too thin to blast with abrasives. In fact, certain thicker sheet can still be deformed by blasting.

So, your remaining choices are to blast the frame, suspension bits, and other heavy gauge stuff. You can Soda blast the rest of the sheet metal. You can also use aircraft stripper to clean the paint if blasting or soda blasting aren't an option. Keep in mind any kind of blasting is terribly messy. Read that again about 10 times and really consider what size mess you're capable of living with.

Once you've gotten the metal clean, you need to quickly seal it. Frankly almost anything will work as long as you safely seal the metal from the elements. The ideal scenario is to clean the metal, prime it with etching primer or some PPG DP-40 which seems to be the catchall primer for me. As long as you comply with the manufacturer's instructions, really any kind of paint is OK, just stick with one paint line and follow the instructions.

The reason is this: All manufacturers design their products to work with one another to promote the best mechanical and chemical bond. So, if PPG says to do things one way for the primer, and you use a DuPont topcoat, you will likely have a paint failure. Either use all of one brand, or all of another, don't mix.

PPG may state you must finish the bare metal with a certain grade of sandpaper, this part ensures the primer has enough mechanical bite to maintain a sound bond with the substrate. Then they say you must prepare the primer in a certain way, with application performed in a specific manner to ensure the ensuing topcoats develop the ideal mechanical and chemical bonds. This is a system.

Back to cleaning metal, I've used a combination of a number of popular methods and apply them as needed in a given circumstance. There is only one method I absolutely will never repeat.. acid dipping. There are vendors who perform a process which cleans the metal and provides an EDP finish for you to work with. The nice thing about EDP is it's a safe finish to leave your project in for a lengthy period of time. But just acid dipping, I'd certainly shy away from. I don't like the residue which is virtually impossible to totally eliminate.

Good luck and keep us posted. -Matt