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MG TD TF 1500 - Bead Blast or Dip

I'm about to remove the paint on my TF. I purchased remover from Eastwood and started on the bonnet sides. There has to be an easier way. I am either taking the rest of the parts to Redi-Strip, which is a chemical remover and metal treatment, or to a plastic media blast shop in my area. Does any one have any experience with either one or both of the removal methods. I think the cost is about the same.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Dan H.
Dan Hanson

Hallo Dan,
I have done it with rubber bristles from 3M. You can put it on air tools.It works very well.If you want more details mail me.Good luck!
Jaap.
Jaap Ettema

Dan,
I have seen the plastic bead and wheat stems used on aircraft. I do not like either because the beads and stems migrate into areas where you can't get to. Maybe that won't hurt an MG but it isn't good for aircraft. Liquid stripper isn't friendly either. I have an aircraft engine with stripper damage and some on the aircraft. I am restoring my 52 TD now and I'll be making that decision soon. I would guess good old hand sanding may be the safest way although the hardest. Please let me know what method you use and the results.

Cheers

Don
Don

media blasting gets everywhere, no matter how careful you are some will always fly out during spraypainting and stick in the paint.

Dipping is better, but only if the dipping place also dips the car in neutraliser and then etch primer. Repainting all those hidden places is otherwise nearly impossible.

Home paint-removal products are slightly better, but you have to be sure to remove all traces of them from seams etc or they will destroy your new paint. For best results, work in the shade, paint the remover onto a 1 foot square of the panel, and cover it with clingfilm. The clingfilm stops the active chemicals from evaporating. Wait 10 minutes and tehn scrape off the paint.

Don's reccomendation of hand-sanding is very safe but also very slow. Dont use a power sander, you'll scratch and gouge the panels.

I use a stainless wire wheel and a stainless cup brush in an angle grinder. It's dusty and noisy, but its faster than chemical stripper and you cant damage the panel. The dust is fine enough that it can be blown out of crevices quite succesfully.

HTH
G
S
Growler

I did the home paint stripping method. You can get industrial grade strippers that are used on aircraft at paint supply stores (US). If you do decide to dip then you really have to be sure that it is neutralized well and get some sort of coating into the little nooks and cranies. Do not do this with the body bucket or doors. Avoid bead blasting as you will still have to use a very heavy primer and some folks can still damage your panels with too much air etc.

Chris
Chris Couper

Back in 1972, I had a very friendly engine machinist dip all of the parts of my totaly disassembled TD in his engine hot tank. He would put the parts in over the weekend when they were going to clean out the tank. Everything fit exept the front fenders which he did one end at a time. The front fenders did have one small spot in the center which didn't get dipped. AFter dipping, he steamed cleaned them. I would pick them up the same day he stripped, bring them home, etch and prime. Later I would go back and sand off the primer in spots that needed filing, although there were very few spots.

Blake
Blake J.

I just had a '74 midget soda blasted. It came out great. It is about as aggressive as plastic media (not very) and leaves a nice clean, smooth surface without warping. It costs about as much or maybe even less than media blasting. It cost me about $600.

The vendor pressure washed the vehicle after he was done. Because the soda is water soluble, there is no danger of grit blowing out of crevices when trying to paint. A bonus is that it leaves a rust-resistant coating that reduces flash rust.

David Littlefield

Though we no longer have a Redi Strip shop in the
DFW area, we did have one for quite a number of
years until the EPA and municipal govts ran them
out of town.

I used them many times on several different MG
projects always with excellent results. The Redi
Strip process is different from the other main
chemical srtipping process-- ChemStrip-- which we
also had in this area and whose process I did not
have good luck with. The Redi Strip process finishes
with a rinse that applies some sort of phosphate
coating that is paintable (as I recall) or readily
removed with metalprep.

I recommend it as long as the price is competitive.
Reed Yates

I have just finished stripping a car the only way that I could, part by part, by hand. I used a spray on stripper by Biz. Do just as they say. Put on a coat and wait 30 minutes til 3 coats are on. Then if resisting on a test area put on another. I used a paint scraper on a long handled followed up immediately by stripping steel wool, wash with a SOS pad, clean with lacquer thinner and finally 3M adhesive remover. The latter was applied after sanding with 180 free cut paper. It has to be dried with a towel before it air dries. Have had a wonderful finish, but it was a lot of work. More Info?
Thom Blair

Thank you all for your interesting responses. It's amazing how people indulge differently in restorations.
This is what I decided to do. I sent the front and rear fenders, the rear splash apron and the gas tank to Redi-Strip. Reasoning: take advantage of the rust removal and metal prep capabilities of parts that were exposed(underside) to the road elements over the years. I am removing the paint on the bonnet and tub with the remover purchased at Eastwood. These parts if I had to do it all over again I would have media blasted. I have seen what they do and it is very impressive.
FYI: I have found media blasting to be less expensive than Redi-Strip. What I paid for the fenders etc. at Redi-Strip, I could have media blasted the entire car.
Dan H.
Dan Hanson

This thread was discussed between 11/09/2000 and 11/10/2000

MG TD TF 1500 index

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