Best way to strip wheel wells?

Looking to slowly start the re-paint on my '82. First order is to strip all 4 wheel wells and then repaint them. Currently they have the factory undercoat on them. So what would be the best way to strip them at home? I have used wire wheel grinders and propane torches before but this will be done in an enclosed garage so that may not be the best idea. Anyone ever used a heat gun? Have a few small rust spots I want to make patches for and then one at a time strip and refinish each one. After that I will move onto the floors. Would love to strip the entire car but budget does not allow for that. And beside that I would probably take many, many years to finish that project. So anyone venture into this....

Get some aircraft stripper from a paint supply store and brush it on. Make sure you have a water hose handy to wash the stripper off your arm when it drips on you. Its some pretty powerful stuff. Also remove rims and put the car on jack stands. Wear some heavy work gloves also and let the stripper sit on the surface as long as the can says and scrape it off with a scrapper.It a nasty job but it works.

I have used that to strip cars for paint, never even thought about it for this.. thanks!

I used propane torch but know heat gun will work. Put some cheapo paint thinner in a spray bottle once the big stuff is off ...spray , soak, wipe off like butter. Dirty work and glad I am over that step.

I used a heat gun and a putty knife. I let the blaster do the cleanup.

Heat gun and a good scraper \ stiff putty knife. You can peel it off like frosting and keep it in a nice, neat pile for easy clean-up. No fumes or gooey mess.
:thumbsup:

Lets see...when I did my under carriage with my car jacked up about 20'', lying on my back I did the following:

Oven Cleaner, did not work for me. Maybe I did not use the proper one, or my coating was harder thicker, I don't know but it did not work for me.

Airplane stripper/POR15 stripper...works great just messy. This and a wire wheel makes it disappear. Just wear face shield and cover everything and make sure the stripper is dry before wire wheeling.

Just wire wheel...works but better with above.

Heat gun putty knife also excellent.

There is a product, (I could not find the post) and I did not use it...but there is a post that shows a substance that is painted on, covered with a special paper then peeled off clean 24 hrs later. Maybe the poster will reply to you...but looked pretty slick.

If I was to do it again....build a rotessiere (SP) and do it standing/sitting or bring it to a blaster.

Rick

I think I am going to give the heat gun/putty knife combo a try. See how that gets it off before I try other more active approaches.

Now when I get them stripped what seems to be the best coating to use? Since it is only a summer ride I am leaning towards sealer and 2 coats of 1 step black....

Epoxy

Epoxy

Primer... paint... or both?

I can vouch for the heat gun and putty knife myself. Worked great- I was only don't the inner half of the wheelhouses on my Chevelle, but I bet it was 30-45 mins a side. Then I used the stripping wheel in my air powered die grinder, and had it down to bare steel in a short amount of time.

I just did mine 2 days ago. I used one of them butane torches and lightly heated the stuff, then scraped it with a putty knife. Came off like hot butter! Too dang easy! Then I cleaned it all up with a wire wheel on my angle grinder. Took me a lot less time than I thought it would. But my gas tank was removed. If yours isn't you might want to try the heat gun.