bwehman
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Is there a sandpaper/pad combo best suited for stripping paint off my truck?
- Thread starter bwehman
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bwehman
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- Mar 21, 2016
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Reporting back for future searchers -
I used the RO150 with standard pad for the bulk of the removal. The color coat came off real easily with 80 grit. The primer needed 60 though. If it weren't a shop truck, I'd stick to something much less aggressive, like 180 for removal and something like 320 or 400 for finishing up, to avoid scratching the metal as much. It'll just take longer. I used Rotex mode the entire time.
The RO90 was indispensable for all the edges. Also used Rotex mode, the stock pad but with the foam soft intermediate pad too. I used 180g and that was good for the details.
I experimented with Rubin 2 just to see what kind of difference using Granat made... wow... yeah, no, don't use Rubin for car paint. If you're out of a certain grit in Granat and think you can get by with the Rubin you have on-hand, just don't. It clogs was too fast. Granat is made for this kind of thing and it shows.
In hindsight, I would've preferred to have the 150's super soft pad. This is a one-off project though, and I don't otherwise have any use for the super soft pad in woodworking, so I made do. But it would've been nice.
Also be prepared to go though a fair bit of sandpaper. The steel sheet metal wears out the cutting efficacy of the paper pretty quickly. I think I used about 4 sheets of 150 and 4-5 of 90 paper to do just the roof you see here.
Hope that helps!
I used the RO150 with standard pad for the bulk of the removal. The color coat came off real easily with 80 grit. The primer needed 60 though. If it weren't a shop truck, I'd stick to something much less aggressive, like 180 for removal and something like 320 or 400 for finishing up, to avoid scratching the metal as much. It'll just take longer. I used Rotex mode the entire time.
The RO90 was indispensable for all the edges. Also used Rotex mode, the stock pad but with the foam soft intermediate pad too. I used 180g and that was good for the details.
I experimented with Rubin 2 just to see what kind of difference using Granat made... wow... yeah, no, don't use Rubin for car paint. If you're out of a certain grit in Granat and think you can get by with the Rubin you have on-hand, just don't. It clogs was too fast. Granat is made for this kind of thing and it shows.
In hindsight, I would've preferred to have the 150's super soft pad. This is a one-off project though, and I don't otherwise have any use for the super soft pad in woodworking, so I made do. But it would've been nice.
Also be prepared to go though a fair bit of sandpaper. The steel sheet metal wears out the cutting efficacy of the paper pretty quickly. I think I used about 4 sheets of 150 and 4-5 of 90 paper to do just the roof you see here.
Hope that helps!
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luvmytoolz
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- May 17, 2021
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If you don't want to outlay too much for pads, you can get really decent pads in different hardness levels to suit Festool tools from ebay now at dirt cheap prices, and they are pretty good quality. For something that might get used to death for a project they'd make good sense at around 1/4 the cost.
I cant really speak to the (rust repair) since Im in Florida I dont have that issue. What we do have is clear coat issues like your truck was displaying. So Im not fully understanding why it had to go to bare metal. If the primer was hard to remove I would have just left most of it especially on a work work truck but thats just me. Show car thats different. I dont own or use an RO but have some pneumatic DA's and usually use a soft interface pad. However, as mentioned I never need to go to bare metal. I have resprayed clear a few times to reverse the damage of this extreme florida sun. I read multiple times and places you cant do what I did. Once again show car no, daily driver yep no problem. I have a car I did 2 years ago that is holding up really good. I lightly sanded the whole thing with 320 used the little nail polish type touch up paint on all the rock chips which was probably around 100 on the hood. Wet sanded those down and sprayed the clear including a few extra coats since I knew I would need to wet sand some gnats out, wet sanded that and buffed it all in the driveway or garage no fancy spray booth. Freaking thing looked almost brand new If you look real close you can see the slight color mismatch of all the tiny dots on the hood but more than 4-5 feet away and they disappear. Most would never know unless I pointed them out. I took an auto body class way back when in high school and I seem to remember the tool of choice for stripping down to bare metal was a geared 8" DA with 80 grit so your RO was on par with the techniques used in 1990 
not sure if much has changed since...
not sure if much has changed since... 
Crazyraceguy
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[member=73094]afish[/member], that same technique of the 8" geared-orbital sander was used as late as 2003. That's when I got out of autobody work and started at the cabinet shop.
Having one at home from those days, and the experience to use it, is how I introduced them to the cabinet guys. They are great for blending seams on large surfaces.
The guys in the solid surface department really like them.
The one issue with them is the same as any other PSA type sanding pad, but magnified. Swapping paper is a challenge, and once peeled off, it is effectively done. You might stick it to a small block, for hand sanding, but it's never going back on the sander.
So, of course my silliness means that I have 3 of them. One for each grit that I use 40, 80, and 120.
The ones I use are Ingersol-Rand 328-B. I haven't checked lately, but they used to sell for $110-$130, depending on the source.
Having one at home from those days, and the experience to use it, is how I introduced them to the cabinet guys. They are great for blending seams on large surfaces.
The guys in the solid surface department really like them.
The one issue with them is the same as any other PSA type sanding pad, but magnified. Swapping paper is a challenge, and once peeled off, it is effectively done. You might stick it to a small block, for hand sanding, but it's never going back on the sander.
So, of course my silliness means that I have 3 of them. One for each grit that I use 40, 80, and 120.
The ones I use are Ingersol-Rand 328-B. I haven't checked lately, but they used to sell for $110-$130, depending on the source.
