Removing one layer of paint - Advise please!

[Steve_S]

I've just acquired an old Ford truck that has been sitting for a few decades. As I was attempting to buff out the black paint, it began to come off on the pad, and show green underneath. I have decided to continue removing the black until nothing but green is showing. It appears someone sprayed on a cheap coat of black, possibly from a spray can, on top of the green paint.

My question: What are the best products for this purpose? Right now I'm using an 8006 pad with Speed Glaze, because that's what I have on hand. As expected, the pad is getting saturated quickly with black paint. What is the best way to clean it the pad?

Here is a photo showing what I'm up against... (notice the pad on the right fender)

[Clutch34]

Re: Removing one layer of paint - Advise please!

woah.. surprise!! lol

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Removing one layer of paint - Advise please!

Wow, that's crazy!!

From the title of your post we thought this was going to be a potential problem, but it actually looks like a fun project. M80 is pretty mild stuff so you could step up to either M83 or even Ultimate Compound and continue using W8006 or W8207 yellow polishing pads. But you're going to want several pads to do the job, for the exact reason you're noticing - they'll load up quickly with dead paint.

A bucket of warm water and some dishwashing detergent will clean the pads up pretty well, but you're likely to end up with some permanent staining of the pads. While the W8207s are machine washable and dryable, in this case you'd be wise to hand wash first, unless you don't mind a permanent black staining of the inside of your washing machine! You can work the pad until cleaning on the fly no longer is sufficient, then soak it in a bucket of warm soapy water for a while, squeezing it to remove as much product and dead paint as possible, then letting it air dry. You may go through half a dozen pads if you decide to tackle the job all at once, or go through fewer pads and extend the process over several days as you clean and dry the pads.

But if the green was just painted over in an obviously hurried process, be surprised to find some areas where the original (or at least previous) green paint is very thin or even missing entirely.

[Steve_S]

Re: Removing one layer of paint - Advise please!

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I was after. Wish there was a way to clean the pads on the fly so I don't have to buy a pile of them!

I don't expect the green paint to look new or anything, and it is indeed thin. Looks like it was tired when it was painted over, which makes perfect sense.

Underneath a hood bracket is some beautiful and shiny light gray paint, which was probably the original color of the truck. If that's the case then the green was probably applied professionally since I detect no gray anywhere that there is green. Any place where the green is worn through shows only metal, no gray. Because of that I think the black will come off with minimal removal of green.

Too bad I can't buff away the big rust patches on the fenders to find green paint underneath...

The green patch above took just shy of an hour to reveal. As you can see, I have a loooooong way to go......

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Removing one layer of paint - Advise please!

Good luck. This will be a interesting project.