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I GOT A BEETLE THAT SOMEONE HAS SPRAY PAINTED OR SOMETHING,BUT ITS NOT A GOOD PAINT I KNOW THAT.I HAVENT STARTED SANDING YET.THE PAINT GUY SAID IT WAS GOING TO NEED ALOT OF SANDING AND THAT WAS GOING TO BE EXPENSIVE.SO, I DECIDED TO DO THE SANDING MYSELF.WHAT IS THE BEST TECHNIQUE TO SANDING WITHOUT MESSING UP THE METAL? ORBITAL--PAPER--SANDBLAST???

Im in the middle of sanding my bug. I have found that an angle grinder with a sanding attachment works the best and is relativly cheap.

GEEZE man! Do you know how rough that's going to make your surface? If you want to sand it, I'd probably use a good D/A, those $29.95 parts store specials don't work all that great. If you want to remove all the material, blasting is messy but would be faster and if you use the right abrasive it will leave you with a real nice surface. Stripper is another option, but be sure to stay away from edges of panels with it because you want to be sure to get every bit of it off and it's hard to get it out of little crevices.

Blasting will be expensive. Either you pay a good guy what he is worth or you replace all the sheet metal the cheap guy warped.

Chemical strippers work fine but you really need a proper facility to use it safely.

Sanding works quite well and you can do it yourself to save money. It is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. You need to make sure you don't get any big gouges in the sheet metal so you shouldn't use really coarse sandpaper or a grinder. If you are careful you will be OK.

You've got quite a job ahead of you... depends on wether yer doing a good quality restoration or simply trying for a decent paint job. In order of quality:
1) sandblasting.. beautiful results, 2 to 3 hours @ $100 per BUT car must be reduced to a bare body shell first.. huge amount of work.
2) chemical strippers .. messy but effective.. some metods eat rubber bits some don't.. be sure before starting
3) sanding.. CHEAP.. but slow and messy.. plus you can damage edges/details in the metal.. and you will have to remove all trim and rubber/glass to get under those edges.
Use a pupose designed sander /foam pad/discs ,or you will botch the job.
The easiest way is to simply pay the body shop to do it.. if they mess it up they will at least know how to fix it

Just dump some brake fluid on it, that will take the paint right off.
HeHeHe

hi...

In my bug i make everything with paper and a lot of pacience...is very cheap

i have pics in my computer but i d'ont know how to post them here

Jean Melim

And remember to be worth anything the windows should be removed for any paint job. How many cars rust from the windows out? Just my 2 cents worth.

I use 8" scotch pads from a welding shop. They have a velcro latch system so you have to buy a backing pad. You'll need about 6 to strip a bug. They leave a perfect surface to prime to. They eat out rust and bondo really well. You'll also need a good hand grinder. If you have really soft paint they will plug easily so I'll use 60 grit and try not hit the metal and then finish with scotch brite. They are brown in color. Good luck, Tim

I just finished stripping a 1961 ragtop and I used a combination of aircraft stripper in a spray can(got it from Wal-Mart)and a flexible sanding disc that attaches to a drill. You can get different grit pads for the disc and with this method I stripped the car to the bare metal in a weekend. Cleaned it up real good with metal prep and coated the shell in etch primer. Looks like it turned out okay and no gouging or warping of the metal. Hard part was the clean up meatl to make sure there was no stripper left on the metal.

If you have the money, have it blasted. Sanding is so hard and time consuming. I started sanding and after about 150 dollars on sand paper,stripper,blocks,etc. I decided to suck up and have it blasted. It came out beautiful. It was the best 350 bucks I have spent on the car. Good Luck

Just for reference. I took all pieces to sandblaster last year and spent about $125 for everything. Great job!

Sanding is possible and surprisingly quick, even by hand. Secret, I think is using the right sandpaper. I know, sounds simple, but it's magic stuff used right.

The 60 grit referred to earlier will really cut through open surfaces quickly. Once your close, go to 180 or 220, then finish with say 400 to clean up the big scratches. Primer/sealer coat should do the rest. This is hard work, but not undoable. The negative is that getting down in the cracks is hard.

Wait til you start color sanding! Good luck!

doc