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So, how have you guys gone about stripping paint? I dont really want to sandblast it, as I will be doing a gloss paint, and I am guessing the blasting would mar the metal.

I was thinking of blasting the underside of all the panels, and then trying a paint stripper wheel, or, chemical stripper, but, the strippers Ive tried dont seem to phase the original paint. There are 4-5 layers of paint on my body, and, the strippers will remove the top 2 or 3 layers, but wont touch the original stuff.

Hi Josh,
While I will never claim to be a body man, I wouldnt let the gloss paint keep you away from blasting. The tooth that is left from blasting will knock down with a DA sander, and then the primer will fill the rest. Plenty of really glossy vehicles started with blasting.
Tim

Look into using a more gentle media in your blaster... Sand is one of the more harsh medias, but maybe glass beeds, corn cob etc might not bite as hard into the metal, but yeah...blast it, prime it, sand it, prime again, paint gloss.

Josh - we did a combo thing. We had to deal with 5-6 coats of paint. The frame/axles/rolling chassis all got chem strip with power washer assist (empty yard next door - no grass until 2018). All the bolt on heavy parts got sandblasted. The fenders, hood, doors, cab, box, gate got chem stripped with a power washer and had to set in the basement until spring. We then had them surface dusted with the sandblaster to knock off the hair - this avoided the big issue of heat building up and deforming the flat surfaces. We went right at the blasted metal with 2 coats of 2-part epoxy, 2 coats of fill primer, DA'd until the dust settled. I would not worry about a blasted surface reading thru. Keith