How should I paint my car? Help

I need opinions and much experience on this one! I'm wanting to finish the body work on my chevy. (57 four door) What I'd like to do is all the metal work first. Once that's done, sections at a time, start to strip ALL the old layers of paint. Then shoot it with expoxy primer and do the filler work. That's what I think would be best. Then I was told just do the body work and do the filler work then, just epoxy primer the whole car and paint. The reason I don't want to do that is because 1, I want to get all that layered paint off. 2, all the wax, oil, etc. that has soaked into the paint (no clear coat). I was told, unless I am doing a complete restoration, then I should just paint over the existing paint. What should I do?

 

Detailed pix posted up 1st.

 

Do the metal work first. Then buy some Capatain Lee's paint stripper. Stuff works great on old paint and isn't a gooey mess like other strippers and it nuetralizes and rinses off with water. Then epoxy prime it. Then put some primer/surfacer over that. I like to use different colors at this point.Makes it easier when you start sanding.You don't want to sand through the epoxy layer.So I usually use DP90(black) epoxy primer then use grey over that. For my final coat of primer before the top coat I usually use a color that is close to what the final color will be or just use white if I want a really brite color.It also helps me keep track of what stage I'm at on each panel since usually some time passes before I get back to it.

 

Sandblast or strip the car first,then do metal work,followed by body work and clean,do the prep work then prime. HRP

 

They havent made DP90 in years. DP90LF is what is available, unless you are importing it.

 

Sand blast the whole car and do the metal work first is the best option, if you are going to get the body into prime in short order. If this build is part time over the course of a year or more, do a panel at a time. I see too many cars blasted taken apart and never finished. The project becomes too big.

 

yes bare metal first then epoxy primer then start bodywork a panel at a time is best because it wont overwhelm you by the time you get 3/4 into stripping the whole car youll get tired of stripping and start rushing the process but a panel at a time and you ll be doing something different every couple days

 

I wouldn't try working one panel at a time. Getting the gaps and fit right to adjacencies usually requires you to work multiple panels at the same time. Instead, I would attack it one phase a time; strip, metal work, filler work, prime, paint, drive it.

 

You're on the right track. If it were me, I would strip the old paint off first. Only strip the amount that you know you can epoxy that same day. Doing it this way, you'll know exactly how much metal work you have to do. Paint and filler hide things that you don't know about. I'd do the whole car inat way. Then I would do the metal work and respray those areas with epoxy as I finished each area.. Once all the metal work was done, I would scuff the whole car with scotchbrite and shoot the whole car with a couple more coats of epoxy. Then I would prime and block as needed.


That's just my way though.

 

I'm doing the same thing(first time also) on a 62 ford truck. I stripped the whole thing with aircraft remover(got it from oreileys) and painted it on with a brush. Works great and takes most down to bare metal, YouTube it... What's left I'm sanding smooth with 80g. That's where I'm at now. I have a thread with some helpful info.