Miss Daisy is turning grey in her old age!

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Specifically, the previous owner's green repaint is coming off of the grey primer. There's been several large grey primer spots exposed over the past 5 years as the green had peeled. Also there are some spots where the green has peeled off portions that weren't primered, exposing a nice green paint job that I believe may be the original.
Today I went out to clean off the bird-dumpings and mildew and decided to hose off the trunk lid (With a garden hose, NOT a pressure washer!). Wherever the repaint was over primer, I was able to peel most of the green off of the trunk lid. Of course the grey primer sticks to the original green paint like glue, and on the part of of the trunk lid yhat wasn't primered, the green repaint is sticking to the original green like glue! So now I can live with a two-tone grey & green Fintail, or I can attempt to rub off the primer and uncover the original paint. (Or maybe I can peel the rest of the repaint off and drive a light grey Fintail!)
Any suggestions on the easiest way to remove the primer while trying to save the original paint?

Happy Motoring, Mark

[riethoven]

I think it would be a difficult proposition to try and get the primer off without harming the paint below. Paint and primer are only a few thousands of an inch thick. You could maybe try wet sanding but it would be slow going and you tun the risk of cutting through the original paint into the original primer. You also have to realize that the PO didn't paint it for nothing, the original paint must have been in bad shape or he would not have repainted in the first place.

It is unfortunate that the non factory paint job was done so badly. It sounds like many of the Chevy and GMC trucks from the late 80's and early 90's. The paint would peel off because it did not adhere to the primer.

[Mike D]

You cant remove the primer. Any low spots, chips, cracks or blemishes will always retain the primer. There were low and high spots in the original paint which is why you have non primered areas.

Sand, primer, sand and repaint is all you can do. Do a good job and Miss Daisy will be the belle of the ball again.

[300SDog]

Gotta be at least another 100k miles of life in the old girl yet, so whatever you do its gonna be worth it.

DIY scrape and steel wool with gentle use of chemicals in between says me. Might get lucky with paint stripper products used SPARINGLY - especially if the jokers that did the cheap repaint skimped on sanding and prepping the original surface. Also extremely gentle use of propane torch might *possibly* help lift cheap repaint from old, but major hazard is that it would probly bubble the original paint underneath instead. Experiment underneath the bumpers first if you're gonna use a torch at all.

Torch is what we used for stripping millions of paint layers off wood trim at antique homes in my house-painting days. Chemicals kinda suck because you're dealing with toxic waste, but you just might get excellent results using paint stripper same as you'd use car wax, working the crappy new paint with steel wool #000 or even coarser stuff like #00.

Get back to us on this, would be great to hear about cherished finbody being restored to original finish. Anybody who repaints one oughta be shot unless the original sheet metal has rusted right through the paint.

[Mark DiSilvestro]

When I first got this car there were already some spots of grey where the paint had flaked and exposed the primer. I was able to compound through to the original finsh, which looked pretty nice. We'll see if I'll be able to expend as much elbow grease to reveal the rest of the trunk and hood.

And the primer was obviously NOT completely applied to the hood and trunk lid because where more paint has peeled from areas of trunk and hood closest to the windshield and back window, I can see that the primer tapers off completely, exposing large ares of original green paint. It's not just a matter of high & low spots under the primer. The primer obviously was not completely applied to the trunk and hood before the last repaint. Past the point where the primer dissappears, the, repaint sticks fiercely to the original paint, while it readily peels off from anyplace that has primer.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[GaryF]

I read in a classic mag recently about Soda-Blasting for delicate paint removal which can do a layer at a time. Similar to Sand blasting but lower air pressure and uses Baking Soda which has much finer particals. Might be worth exploring ?

[Mike D]

Ah yesssss! The Earl Scheib famous $69.99 job. "I can paint any car, any color for $69.95", "say son, you don't plan on driving this car in the rain, do ya?"

Go for the buff out. You got nothing to lose. I'd suggest going out and getting a circular buffer. Otherwise, you will be developing some mighty fine specimens of the classic "Popeye" arms!

"I yams whats I yam, toot toot!

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Actually, Earl 'the pearl' Sheib didn't prime the cars, at least not for the cheapo price. He'd paint over anything - bugs, twigs, bird droppings. A friend had them paint his '63 Ford Falcon and they painted the hubcaps! In 1977, I had them paint my '68 Opel Kadett. At the time, their cheapo price was $59.95 for a limited selection of mostly ugly, solid colors. But I had to pay $20 extra because White was priced with the metallic colors. I removed my hubcaps. Big mistake I made was grey-priming the lower body, where I'd fixed some rust. I often noticed, when I opened the door, that my fingernail would sometimes scrape off a bit of paint behind the door handle! Earl's paint stayed soft over my primer but dried hard on the original white paint on the roof. Hmmm, sounds like Miss Daisy's problem.

Happy Motoring, Mark