Sanding...

Hey y'all, I wanna sand my trailer, as quickly and brutally as possible. Right now I have one of those wire wheel thingys on it that is almost useless. It's taking off the rust, but not the 30 layers of paint. Should I go for one of those flap-disc sanding wheels for my drill? I hear those are boss, but have never used one personally.

Besides aircraft paint stripper, what is best as far as drill-attachments go gang? Anyone here an expert at paint demolition?:rof:

belt sander for the big flat spots then sanding/flap disc on the drill is what we use at work when bead blasting is not a option

For a drill motor attachment? Check your hardware store for "paint stripper wheels" - they look like (I'm not making this up!) about a four- or five-inch by three-quarter inch thick disk of really coarse afro (no offense meant to anyone at all reading this. When I was working paint prep, the shop called them "ni**er hair", and that's as good a description as any.)

You do not need to bear down when using this stuff - one wheel should just about strip your entire trailer. It's very coarse (as abrasives go) with an open grit, so it shoudn't load up. If you press down hard on the thing, then you're just going to break down the wheel that much faster.

You'll have best results if you use a wire wheel (or something similarly nasty) to break through the paint and primer in one spot, and then use the stripper wheel from there - as it will get under the paint that much faster.

You can also use a wire wheel (or a cup brush in an angle grinder,) but you're going to leave quite a lot of toolmarks if you're not careful - and you'll have to sand them out before you paint. The stripper wheel shouldn't leave toolmarks - I've used them to strip soda cans neatly, just as a check.

The thing looks something like this:


(You can see how it got its name around body shops...)

Excellent!! I totally forgot about those things...sounds great!!

Thank you very much .

thats what we used on my buddys cutlass, it takes it right down to metal right now atriot: have fun

Yeah, those wheels are crazy. But if you had a day to do it, with as little effort as possible- do the aircraft stripper. That stuff works crazy well, just do it in an extremely ventilated area. And don't hose the stuff down the drain....

Go to Harbor Frieght and get one of their 4 inch or 4.5 inch right angle grinders, they've got four or more simaler models. When one of them's on sale they're about $15 and get a 3.5 inch twisted wire cup. These things got way more power and rpm than any drill and make sparks fly even through ten layers of paint. Wear some good eye and body protection because the wires off the cup (this is why you get the twisted together style) will actually stick into you like porqupine quils when they fly off! They have the flap style sanding disks too, but the wire cups are my favorite for fab prep.

Cool, yea I actually have that angle grinder, the orange 4". I never thought of another attachment on that, but I knew the grinding wheel wouldnt' work because I'd leave a lot of marks...

Interesting suggestion! Thanks!

you have an air compressor right? get a scaler. rust and paint will instantly be your bitch

GrimmJeeper said:

you have an air compressor right? get a scaler. rust and paint will instantly be your bitch

Click to expand...

Ha Ha i love you angle's grimm!:explosion

HEY!
This is technical stuff here, it should be MOVED IMMEDIATELY!

Skwerly said:

Hey y'all, I wanna sand my trailer, as quickly and brutally as possible. Right now I have one of those wire wheel thingys on it that is almost useless. It's taking off the rust, but not the 30 layers of paint. Should I go for one of those flap-disc sanding wheels for my drill? I hear those are boss, but have never used one personally.

Besides aircraft paint stripper, what is best as far as drill-attachments go gang? Anyone here an expert at paint demolition?:rof:

Click to expand...

Go get a Makita angle grinder and some flap wheels, it'll tear right through that shiite.

GrimmJeeper said:

you have an air compressor right? get a scaler. rust and paint will instantly be your bitch

Click to expand...

Well yea, but it's el-weako! I need a better one, been looking a bit online.

Talk to your local body shops, and see if they can suggest a media blaster local to you.

You can usually get a small trailer taken down to bare metal for about $150. They'll throw it in a stall and sand blast/glass bead it right down.

cal said:

Talk to your local body shops, and see if they can suggest a media blaster local to you.

You can usually get a small trailer taken down to bare metal for about $150. They'll throw it in a stall and sand blast/glass bead it right down.

Click to expand...

He only paid $75 :laugh:

Skwerly, once its filled with empty beer cans just recycle the cans and pay for the bead blasting. haha

Skwerly I have a heavy-duty 20gal Craftsmen air compressor if you need to borrow it.

Think I have one of those Afro pads you can have.

buy some playground sand and come up here Ill let you use the sand blaster and compressor. might even let you drink my beer