EDDIEJ82

Well I got the stripping finished Sat, I had thought about using chemical stripper, but I had a razor blade laying around so I tried it for a WTH kinda thing. It worked great, way easier than I thought it would be and no drippy mess to deal with. Get this, it only took me a total of 11 hrs to do it! and that was with beer breaks! I was quoted a price of $1800 just to strip it I have a couple of cracks at the rear drivers fender that need fixing where a tire blew out on the previous owner, but besides that the rest of it is in very good shape.

I'm going to change out the urathane rear bumper to a fiberglass one because the top of the spoiler is very wavy (unless someone knows how to fix this)

So how hard is it to do? Will I need a new mounting kit? If you've done this before I would appreciate your thoughts or recomendations on this.

I'll try to take some pics and post them

terry82

have not replaced bumpers yet ,they dont look too hard to do .i am going to buy the truflex bumpers .they are less ridged .should be easier to match up to the body .i was told to get the new mounting kit .you saved $1800.00 stripping the car your self thats great .your labor rate down there must be high . how much does he want to paint the car ?

Twin_Turbo

No new mounting kit required if you can remove all the nuts from the mounting strips without breaking the little studs, so remove the bumper first to see how it goes. The mounting strips are pop riveted so can be easily removed.

There is 1 long mounting strip across the top and 2 on the sides that follow the body contour. However, theré's also 2 little studs behind the back up lights (or was it the brake lights... can't remember exactly) that thread into the bumper, if you forget to remove those removing the bumper will be impossible

There's also a tab under the license plate that secures the the bottom of the bumper so it doesn't wobble.

The fiberglass ones probably don't have the holes for those 2 studs behind the lamps and this tab is also not present..well it's not on mine anyway.

Mine also did not have the mounting buckets for the rear lamps and there were no holes either, I had to punch them myself and shape it w/ a router to get the lamps in.

EDDIEJ82

I got 2 estimates one was $6400 the other was $7200 but both had 40 hrs labor at $45 hr to strip. I've been in the painting feild all my working life, industria , comercial, residential but this is the first car I've attempted. So far, so good

mox 77

Eddie:
Could you expound a little on the razor blade strip process?
For the life of me, I cannot understand how this can be done without damaging the underlying fiberglass. Do you use one of those blade "holders"? Any help appreciated.
Bill

mfgaffney

I'm intertested as well. I have replaced the frt and rear bumpers on my 74. The aftermarket retainers are easier to use than re-using the stock, well worth the investment in my experience.

KALAWAY

How do you evenly use a razor blade and not dig too deep a time or two? I can't peel an apple or a potato without doing just that. Maybe it's just me.

Twin_Turbo

I did it w/ a blade also, you can buy a handle to hold the blades but I did some experimenting and found that a long nose vise grip works best, held upside down you get a real shallow angle of attack and a minimal chance of digging into the glass.

EDDIEJ82

Ok here is some pics and the tool that I used. I still have some spots at the bottom to strip but I think I am going to sand these areas, they are hard to get with the razor. The short stiffer holder with heavier blades worked better on the larger sections. the yellw scraper with thinner blades worked better on the curvier parts of the body.

EDDIEJ82

Bill, was a little scared to try it too. The first fender was a little akward, but I got the hang of it on it. The biggest thing is figuring out the best angle to hold the blade and when it starts popping off the paint keep going with it in a steady pace as long as you can untill you hit another body line or untill you fall off a curve or the bottom. This will make more sense when you start doing it. Try to avoid short rapid scrapes unless you have to, this is where it will nick most. when your starting on a new panel you just about have to start it that way, go as far as you can on the first cut and work outwards from it. It's easier to work outwards with half the blade cutting and the other half riding on what you have already cut. Just keep a long steady pace and the paint will come right off. You will wear out more blades this way because you are doing most of the work with the edges of the razor verses the whole blade. At $1.99 a ten pack just wear them out and get a new one. I went thru about 3 packs of razors. Get a dust mask the paint busts up pretty fine, but will wash or blow right off.

EDDIEJ82

The blade is really pretty flexable and will follow the curves well. They are a lot more flexable than I thought they would be. I can just barley peel and apple or potato too. Stripping the vette is easier in my opinion. Just larger.