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What kind of sander for stripping paint?

583 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  67_Mustang
It's time to strip the Mach, and start ordering new body panels, so what kind of air sander do you guys reccommend for stripping paint/sanding down bondo? I'm going to be taking everything down to the metal. And, what brand(s) are best?
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I used a combination of electric "buzz box" sanders, angle grinder with wire braided wheels, air powered DA's (Don't get the cheapies), air powered long block sander, hand sanding blocks, paint stripper, scouring pads, lots and lots of elbow grease. Seems like an individual tool would'nt do the job in and of itself.
DA (dual action) is probably the best in my opinion. You can use the stick on paper which makes it very easy to change. I don't have a name brand to recommend. If you keep them properly oiled they will last a long time.
Did the whole job on my coupe with a variable speed Black&Decker angle grinder with 40 & 60 grit paper on a rubber back, real quick and if you are carefull it wont heat up the metal/forums/images/icons/smile.gif
I used good old-fashioned paint stripper (methylene chloride IIRC) to strip 90% of the paint off the race car when I painted it...

For the rest I used a combination of orbital and random sanders....Most of the air tools in my shop are I/R, since I use them professionally, with some CP stuff....the electric sanders/grinders are B&D and Makita. Polishing equipment is all Milwaukee.

I recall, once the paint was gone and bodywork began, I used mostly hand sanding equipment, like block sanders (couldn't afford the air variety back then)...I found that method, along with lots of wet-sanding to guage the smoothness of panels, to be my best route to a nice home-grown paint job.

Enjoy the project!
Thanks for the replies everyone. Sounds like fun! /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif
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