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

["Dusty Hurliman" <dustinh2000@xxxx>]

Dan, why did you have to destroy that beautiful paint job? I never was a
big fan of painted Deloreans, but your looked really good. I would have
bought another car that was already stainless. (If only I could afford
it...)
I hope it looks good now though.

Dusty

p.s. sorry this is so late but I am really behind on reading the posts. My
mailbox has over 500 old messages.


----- Original Message -----
From: Danrc30 <Danrc30@xxxx>
To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 9:39 PM
Subject: [DML] Why I didn't make it to Cleveland RE: striping DMC-then
rebrushing or painting


> 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...
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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