Tank Repaintin Troubles

[GabrielGoes]

so i had several chips on my tank from the previous owner and it was already sprayed i could tell from the wavy "orange peel skin" texture so i decide to use paint stripper gel to get it off to start from scratch... it turns out he used this "green" putty stuff all over and i guess its fiberglass or some sort of hardening putty and i have about 1/2 of the tank down to the bare metal... the rest i am trying to pry off with a flat head screwdriver!! haha i am gonna be stripping paint all day 1 inch at a time. my question is you are supposed to go down to the bare metal and prime over it right? and is there anyway to take off this green putty stuff without a flathead screwdriver? thanks for reading!!

[Steve]

That green putty stuff just might be Bondo.

No way to tell what it's hiding, so if it looks secure, just leave it, sand it smooth and start priming.

.

[GabrielGoes]

i already took of so much bondo it would be so uneven in certain areas but ill see what i can do i will try to sand it even and then prime

[Dodik]

wire brush on a grinder may speed things up for ya

[Skateguy50]

When I did my tank I got the metal around the badges down using a belt sander, maybe that will work for your mystery material. I also used it as the first stage of bondo sanding when I filled in the recesses.

[wacky941]

Sounds to me like something along the lines of A4 Metalset which is green when it dries and is extremely hard, hard enough to actually tap and drive a screw into.
I would sand it down and use it as is.
If you have already chisled some of it off then I believe that you should be able to build it back up again. This stuff is better than Bondo.

http://www.reynoldsam.com/index.php?cPath=11_1125_1178 link to A4 Metalset

[Buster-boy]

Find a shop that does bead blasting. That'll take off anything. Should cost about $30.

[ddaniels]

Sounds to me like something along the lines of A4 Metalset which is green when it dries and is extremely hard, hard enough to actually tap and drive a screw into.
I would sand it down and use it as is.
If you have already chisled some of it off then I believe that you should be able to build it back up again. This stuff is better than Bondo.

http://www.reynoldsam.com/index.php?cPath=11_1125_1178 link to A4 Metalset

But the idea of bondo is to be able to sand it smooth.

[Tim Tom]

wire brush on a grinder may speed things up for ya

Speed up yeah, but it will also scratch the metal so that the whole tank will need a skim coat. I would recommend using a brillo pad on the angle grinder instead. Something like this.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3642457&CAWELAID=362171815

[wacky941]

But the idea of bondo is to be able to sand it smooth.

A4 Metalset is a filler for dents and dings that is much much stronger than Bondo AND it can be sanded smooth not to mention this product adheres itself extremely well unlike Bondo that is only made to be used only for thin layers and will literally fall off if applied thicker.

I have used both and Bondo is no comparrison to A4 Metalset and in the end the A4 Metalset is pretty much just as strong as the metal it's bonded to.

One more quick thing, I never said that A4 Metalset was easy to sand you just need to apply a little more pressure and because bondo is easily sanded this is an indicator of how easily bondo will chip off or worse yet fall off.

[crazypaint]

its probably duraglass use a grinder and do it slowly when u get close to the metal use 80 grit on a da

[ukilme]

Just sand it down with 80 or 100 grit using a orbital sander if you want to know what is hidden. Or fill in what you chipped away with a good body filler (everclear or something like it) and pretend it never happened.

If you have a spray gun with a large tip, prime it with a good 2k primer as it will act a filler as well and sand again using a guide coat. Then it should be smooth and ready for paint. If you do not have a spray gun, SEM makes a good primer in the can. It is more expensive then dupli-color or such but works great.

http://semproducts.com/Catalog.asp?prod=148

Your local auto body shop should have this stuff.

[crazypaint]

just a fyi to all. u can use any primer with a small roller and get the same results u would with a spray gun. u just gotta sand a bit more

[ukilme]

Did not know that. Cool...

[wacky941]

That's strange, I wonder why my previous post posted twice? and about a half hour apart! Has this happened to anyone else? Is there any way to delete one of them?