How to Paint Your Car on a Budget. Pat Ganahl

       Here’s another good example of metal that doesn’t need stripping. This is a ’56 VW door, but it could be a whole car. Amazingly, after 50 years, it still has factory-original paint on it—the fact the inside matches the outside is a good clue—with virtually no dents, and very complete.

       My son purchased a pair of these for $100 each for an early Bug he’s rebuilding (much simpler and cheaper than fixing the ones on the car). They were shipped from Australia, and what minor surface rust is on them appears to have occurred on the boat trip.

       The first place to check for serious rust on any car is at the bottom edge of the doors, which should have unclogged drain holes to let water out. These have minor surface rust, but no nasty rust coming from inside out.

      On the other hand, if you’re a true pessimist or Doubting Thomas, and you don’t know what lies under the painted or primed surface of your vehicle, there’s only one way to find out—strip it to bare metal. This is the final option, and it’s the only viable one if you know the body has too many layers of paint already, has obvious problems with existing paint not adhering to the body, has bodywork you can tell is bad (including excessive filler), or shows visible signs of rust. The only question, given this fourth option, is how to strip the body.

      So Strip It

      First the don’ts—please don’t take a grinder, or any kind of rotary sander, to the body to try to strip all the paint off. Not only does a grinder not reach into lots of areas that need to be stripped, but it scars the surface and actually removes metal, which you do not want to do during the stripping process. If you use a big body grinder, it not only gouges the surface, but it can also heat and warp the sheetmetal. During the stripping process, you want to remove everything except metal from the body.