Why I didn't make it to Cleveland RE: striping DMC-then rebrushing or painting

["Danrc30" <Danrc30@xxxx>]

Ok. I just did this to my car. So, here's my story. 

I was planning on attending the Cleveland show. So, in the prepping of my car for the show, I wanted to repaint sections of the black portion of my car. I was going to leave the gold part alone. (If you want to see what my car looked like, go to Brian Henderlongs' site http://home.tampabay.rr.com/deloreans/index.htm and click on the black link.) So, I went and bought paint and shot it. Unfortunately, the store failed to tell me that their paint will attack lacquer. So, it ruined my paint job. Hence, no Cleveland. So, the stripping began. I removed all panels except for the doors and stripped them. I broke just about every bolt that I put a wrench on due to rust when removing the body pieces. I knew then that I had my work cut out for me. Also, it was a major pain in the ass to strip the panels I must add. The paint was from when the car was new at the dealer, and I guess it grew accustomed to being there. It did not want to come off. It took several days to strip all the panels. I had to drill out every screw that held the rocker panels on so I could remove the quarters and fenders. The stripper I used was from an auto parts store, and came with a spay bottle. It was Captain Lee's Auto Spray Strip.

Once I completed the stripping, I saw what I had... no hidden damage, well, not dents or filler at least. What I had was a car covered with 80 grit sandscratches from a Dual Action (DA) sander. This destroyed the grain on the car. It was a mess. So, what did I do? I attempted the impossible. I started refinishing the body to have a grain again. It takes a full day of work for each panel, and the hood took two days. The hood is very fragile by the way, and I had to be very gentile with it. Anyway, what I ended up doing was taking a 6" DA pad, and tig welding an adapter to fit it on a grinder/polisher. I then started experimenting with different grits of paper. The final process was to start with 220 grit. Then go to 320, and then finish with 400 grit. It wasn't just going over it once either. I had to sweep many times over the same area to get all the scratches out. Then, once I had a nice smooth, shiny finish, I could begin to grain. That was hard too because the tool doesn't want to stay in one place. It was difficult knowing where to go too. But I did eventually figure it out and got a nice grain. 

My advice? If you have all the time in the world, and an unbelievable amount of patience, and you really want a stainless car... go for it!. If not, don't attempt this. The amount of work I've been doing is unbelievable. My back has been killing me, and I'm so tired of the work. Stripping is bad enough... graining is a nightmare if you have the same scratches in your stainless as I did. By the way, if anyone knows where I can get more flappers like the ones that came from the factory, please e-mail me directly. Thanks.

I will tell you all that it is almost done now. The car is totally different. I will post pics when it is completed. 

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

---Dan Vin#5493 was Black and gold, now stainless after 19 years of being hidden...


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