Painted DeLorean, what should I do?

[Sladelorean]

I bought a painted sliver DeLorean with the T-section stripped... I do like my DeLorean I bought, silver looks good; but stainless looks great wondering which will cost less... Stripping the paint, fix couple dents "there's a small dent in the center of the hood and left fender has a small dent maybe cause by a door/shopping cart or something" and having the stainless steel refinish..... Or Buy new panels, replace them and sell the painted panels online... Also I'm not doing the work myself... I'll be taking it to a body-shop to remove the paint, hopefully nothing major will be found underneath it and then take it to the DeLorean Company here in Florida to do the fininshing touches... Or take it to the DeLorean Company, buy new panels and switch them out... What do you think I should do? And do you know any good places in Florida I should take it too? Also Where do you go to get your DeLorean service? oil change, stuff like that...:confused0:

[Evildeli]

I think buying replacement panels especially for the driver front panel and correct will cost more than just stripping, fixing dents and regraining. I don't think you'll have much luck selling painted/dented panels either at a good price. DMCFL does dent repair if you can't find detailed a shop closer. I've seen their repair work and it's well worth it. You should search the forum for the Red D that's being hand stripped.

[Kenny_Z]

I'd be worried about a DeLorean painted silver. Painting it red or black is one thing but why paint it the same-ish color if there wasn't some sort of body damage? They can be stripped by hand. If you can do the work yourself you'll save a ton of cash. Then you can take that cash and put it into the restoration of the panels if it's needed.

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?6182-Time-to-say-good-bye-to-the-red

[Dangermouse]

I've seen a couple recently that had originally been red or blue.and then at some point painted silver to get it closer to SS look without all the work.

[Sladelorean]

I'm the forth owner, it was painted two other colors before silver, red & blue... Jim sent me a message on the forum telling me about dustless blasting technique, it looks safe, affordable and all I need to do is fix the two dents and regrain the DeLorean... I did found a place in Orlando and sent them a message... I want to say thank you Jim, you're awesome..:driving1:

[Josh]

I am going through the paint removal process currently. My car is red and I am finding alot of bondo :( . So if you want perfect panels it is going to take alot of work / money. A good start is to remove the panels and look from behind to see dents. If not, you are golden. If so... You have some extra work to be doing or panels to be buying. As for stripping the paint, aircraft paint stripper works good, but it is very messy, requires alot of labour, and produces hazardous waste. Another option is Peelaway 1. Owners have claimed to strip their car in two days will the peelaway. Chemical removal does not hurth the metal, so if the grain is good under the paint you may not have to do a regrain.
Then there is blasting. I am going this route. As far as I am concerned there is two types of blasting for this project. Dustless blasting (glass beads) and dry ice blasting. I am working with a dustless blaster right now to strip my panels. He blasted at 110psi and it is pitting the metal, he is going to try and dail it back and we will go from there. Dustless blasting will require a complete regrain, you are damaging the surface of the stainless very slightly. However if there is bondo on the panel it will make short work of it. The other option is Dry ice blasting. This takes more time and will not remove bondo, but it effectively gets under the paint and lifts it, leaving the stainless surface untouched.

For regraining (covered extensively if you do a quick search) you will need a drill or airtool that spins around 1000rpm and a wolfhead 12 brush flapper disk with 80 or 60 grit aluminum oxide reloads. Then for blending elbow grease and a scotchbrite pad is used.

Let me know if you need anymore info, I have extensively researched paint removal!

[ALEXAKOS]

Wouldn't sandblasting the panels help remove the painted layers?

[SamHill]

The most economical way is to search for a D needing resto (no more than $9K or so,) swap panels and sell off the remaining bits.