Stripping vs. Sandblasting Paint

Steve Eastman showed me how and I got to use a fine brass wire wheel on his bench grinder which does a good job at stripping paint. We did this on a recent resto job. Only the engine tin shell got stripper, 3 times, because of the old paint that was the consistency of old cracking shellac.

This question will get many different answers, all of which worked for someone.

I have refinished forty, fifty or more pieces of tinplate and post-war locomotives. I strip first, using hot soapy (Tide) water. At times chemical strippers or lacquer thinner are used when necessary. Occasionally I have run into a repaint that was a real bear - must have been some polyurethane or similar paint.It also seems that different manufacturers used different types of paint at different times, so stripping can get frustrating.

After stripping, I glass bead blast using the finest media I could get - it is almost like course flour. This evens up the surface and cleans up the odd bit that stripping missed. It will not remove detail from post-war castings - unless you keep the flow in one place for a couple of minutes.

After the bead blast, I rinse the item in clean lacquer thinner to remove any stripper, media and/or oil residue. I do this after the item has been placed on the hanger which will be used while painting - no bare handed handling after the rinse!

The item is hung at least for several hours to be sure all the lacquer thinner rinse has evaporated. I then prime with an etching primer available at an automobile paint supply store. Regardless of what the can says I let the primer dry twenty four hours. Do not sand this etching primer. The brand I use goes on very smooth and does not require a sanding primer over-coat.

The paint choice is then one of your choice.

If the item is pitted and needs filling, I usually use JB Weld on bare metal after the lacquer rinse. After leveling and smoothing I give the item a very quick rinse with the lacquer thinner, then prime, etc. as described above.

Works for me!!

Bob,

I would avoid sand blasting any vintage piece of tinplate. The safest medium would be walnut shells. They come in two grits. The next would be glass beads which also come in different grits. The ultimate method above all others is soda blasting. I prefer the soda method because it is very fast and safe. Most auto body shops are happy to help once they know it's for vintage toy trains. The cost is minimal and the results are unbelievable. You may have to go shop to shop with a piece like you're wanting to clean. There's just something about the mystique of toy trains that brings out the little boy in grown men. 

Years ago Clem Clement recommended to me soaking tinplate in Driveway cleaner from Home Depot. It works well.

Before:

After:

Now I have to paint it.

Scott Smith

Scott,

   The HD's good driveway solvent cleaner is the way to go, in a home restoration set up, I started to use it a good time ago, I do believe it was Clem who also gave me the idea.  It works well but make sure you super clean it off the Tin, after the stripping process takes place, I actually dip the rolling stock.  Use a small soft SS or Brass wire wheel to touch things up, do not let the solvent dry on the Tin, and then try to remove it.

Nice stripping job on the passenger car by the way.

PCRR/Dave   

Pappy,

I have never heard of "soda" blasting.  Is that something I can do inside my new Harbor Freight blasting cabinet or is it something I need to shop out?  Does it take special equipment?  If it does, where does one purchase the equipment and supplies needed for soda blasting?

Bob Nelson

navy.seal,

Bob, I know HF sells soda blasting equipment & supplies. I have to pay folks these days due to PD. I've been using one shop for a few years now. He calls my wife when they're ready to do a big job, keeps my cost down.

I use Drain-O...it works great..Fill a bucket with warm water pour in about 1/4 of the can stir it up, place the cars in the solution, let sit for 1/2  hour. The paint should be almost gone, wear rubber gloves and use a stiff brush to remove the rest of the paint. When you are done pour it down your drain and it will clean your pipes.

PS only do this with tin plate. Enclosed is one of my finished projects.

Over the years I've tried many different methods. I used to boil the parts in Tide then scrape with a brush and boil again and scrape again until cleaned of old paint. This did not work at all on repainted items with newer paints especially automobile paint. It also remove NO rust. So the rust had to be hand sanded and worked with a moto tool. I also used chemical strippers which is essentially the same as boiling but without the boiling. Of course you have the hazzard of working with chemicals and they stink and burn. Works faster but... I then discovered sand blasting. You only need a portable unit with a decent compressor and clean filtered sand, with an outdoor area in which to work and let the sand fly. Very fast, very efficient, removes all the rust too, but is dirty. I then graduated to a blasting cabinet. These can be purchased for around $100 for a cheap model. This affords the reuse of the media and easy changing of the media. Mainly I stuck with medium grit glass beads. Very efficient, very clean, removes paint and rust and brings a bright aircraft aluminum shine to everything. This is the best method I have found.

It is not expensive. You need an air compressor. I use a carpenters nailer compressor. It runs a lot but I can get the job done with the breaks in between. My cabinet is a cheap $100 job I got on E-Bay. It does the job. You can get glass bead in 80 pound bags for around $35. So if you have a compressor all you need is about $150 more and your set.

If any of you guys do the soda blasting method, which is a very good way to go, be sure to neutralize wash with mild Phosphoric Acid, before priming.

We got into trouble doing a 66 nova body. We didn't think anything about the soda residue left on the metal, we were at the time, so amazed in the blast job.

After the nightmare of re-stripping with soda blast again, we did the mild acid wash wash, and when we re-primed we used the etching primer, which is acid base.

This will in itself, would probably neutralize the soda blast residue, that was left behind.

One other thing that I forgot to mention was that this body was hand washed and blown dried, getting it ready for the 1st coat of primer, but with out "neutralization wash/rinse it was to no avail!...................................................Brandy!

For tinplate I use Citrastrip paint stripper and small SS brush.  It removes paint from tin quickly and with no damage what-so-ever.  For die cast pieces with lots of detail, I use a bead blaster or sometimes the baking soda blaster.

As noted above, no matter how good the old paint was on the tin, there is almost always rust underneath it.  Once the tin is stripped of paint, I deal with the "spider web" rust by soaking the pieces in Evaporust overnight.  Evaporust removes rust like magic, and it will also lift any remaining bits of paint.  Clean up the pieces with hot soapy water, and get ready to paint!

Brandy,

I appreciate your bringing up the acid prep. It's a given since my street rod days. Something that comes natural for one person, must be passed to the next. Once again, Thank you!

gene,

   Now the Drain-O stripping technique I have never tried, but I like the sounds of it cause you can easily get rid of the stripper, and I like the 2nd usage.  Will the Tin Cars come out something similar to what Scott has pictured in his post above?

PCRR/Dave

Happy Pappy, you are more than welcome for my input. Very seldom if ever I can interject any wisdom into anything that's discussed on this forum. I think that everybody that post's on here, is much farther advanced than I am, especially in Model Railroading.

I just know what we found out from experience with the Soda Ash Residue. You would have thought, that giving the metal body, a very good hot soapy water wash, would have removed all of the residue, but both were of a basic nature.

I should have remembered my Refinery Day's, as we used Baking Soda/ Soda Ash to help control Ph in cooling tower water........................Brandy!  

I've found the easiest way to remove paint on metal is to use Easy Off oven cleaner. It removes all the paint in minutes and washes off with hot water. My wife even lets me do it in the kitchen sink!

Easy off wont work on all paints.

 Spray on Aircraft Stripper from the auto-parts stores was the very best of the "over the counter" chemical strippers. It has never failed to work.

Lacquer thinner, or older carb cleaners in a one gallon paint bucket worked wonders if given overnight soak time.

 My drunk step-dad decided it was a good idea to come along un-asked, and put the final coat of paint on my first car. He did a "nice heavy coat", in the sun so it would dry quicker. He was good at ruining my work, this time with unreal, "hammer paint"  orange peel. But it was incredibly tough, hard to scratch, never chipped. 

 The sprayer used, got left part full of red automotive enamel, and put on the shelf in my Grandfathers garage for 20+ years to cure to a solid chunk. No worry! A week in lacquer thinner, air pressure, screw drivers, & some wire brushing, then I used it to paint another car. Yellow this time, no lemon peel.   

 Castrol purple degreaser will lift most paint, takes a little longer to initially soak, but once its working, it comes off like you oiled under it. (For auto parts that can kill two birds being a degreaser).

 I recently used the exact same products as Yukon Jack on MARX M-10005 cars!

 Citra strip was an orange citrus paste, and so far, a great stripper. My second use. First was a Wlliams GG1 shell. The residue was of concern to me. It got washed well. Hope that was enough for where I could not see it, or touch it. 

Evapa rust is also citrus stuff. Looks like O.J. Dump it in a plastic basin, maybe loosen heavy rust scale with a wire brush, dump it in the basin and check it out every hour or so, loosening bad areas each time. I really like this product. It can remove softer paints like the M-10005, but my 6" marx stuff wasn't phased by it, other than looking much cleaner upon removal.

 I also use a dip it a rust to zinc converter product like "rust repair magic".

It dries to a soft black, grey, blue, and/or purple "soft primer" coating.

It does stain raw metals looking much like gun blue-ing.

I like how it initially fills pitting some too.

When you can, I do really suggest etching primer on metal too, for the first primer coat. Then if you want filler, or color primer add a coat. Etching primer will dry thin, smooth as silk, & hard as a rock. A strange pale green most often, and it seals long term, like nothing else.

 I usually thin the zinc out to almost nothing scotch-brite-sanding it, for topping with etching primer.(though it does seem to bond fully to the zinc it is stronger than the zinc) If I don't etch, I just poop* filler onto the zinc as is.

(*a painters term. Make like Archie Bunker(**who?), and point a finger like a sprayer!) 

**just do a "raspberry"  

Stick out you tongue and imitate a flat  ok..fart sound .

..see its the universal language for paint, finger out thpptt-thpble-thpptt .

..or was that pull my finger..thpptt-thpble-thpptt oh well

 They got a scalding hot wash, and agitated soak/rinses, between treatments and blow-dried till it was too hot to pick-up.

 I have sensitive skin, everything seems to give me hives & rashes, but neither burned, or had an effect on my skin at all. I have to wonder if gloves were needed?