THE 1963 THUNDERBIRD ITALIEN


Chapter 23 - PAINT STRIPPING

Copyright © Thomas Maruska 2008
All Rights Reserved


Before I began stripping the many layers of old paing off the Italien
I wanted to see if I could get a good idea of the original color.
On the left front corner of the roof I carefully sanded through the silver mink color
and the primer below to uncover the original Candy Apple Red color.




Then on the back right corner of the roof I again sanded a larger area
and once I got the top coat of Candy Apple Red uncovered
I proceeded to sand through to determine the color of the base coat they used originally.
I found what I was hoping for, and that's the Gold base.
I continued to sand through the paint to get down to the fiberglass gel coat and
I discovered that the car had been painted the Candy color not only once,
and not only twice, but three times!
I originally speculated in Legendary Ford Magazine that they (DST or Ford)
weren't happy with the way the color turned out the first time so they sprayed it again, this time a
orange color, and again didn't like that so they sprayed it again
and got a color they liked.
Now, after having sprayed the car, I believe they had some streaking
the first two times they sprayed it so they sprayed it again until
they got it streak free.
The Candy colors are very difficult to spray and I'll tell you more about it in the Painting chapter.


Well, now that I know what color it is I proceeded to remove the old paint.
I used the Aircraft Stripper for Fiberglass on the roof and deck of the Italien,
and Aircraft Stripper for steel on the rest.
Since there was so much paint on this bird
(approximately 90 coats) it took about 6 applications of stripper
to get it off.

I started on teh tulip panel (between the rear window and trunk opening)


Then went to the roof


I had the trunk lid on a horse and had that going at the same time.
I scraped the old paint into a couple piles to show you what a mess it is


The bottom of the deck lid had to be stripped too






This would make a kewl paint job, I should have just sanded it off and cleared it.
NOT!




This is the supplied air respirator I use when stripping paint.
The Aircraft stripped is nasty stuff and paint respirators or dust masks don't
protect you from the fumes.
This unit has an air pump in the back room near an open window
and 80 ft of hose for me to move around freely.
I never even smell the stuff when I wear this.


Cleaned down to the metal.  Again, some of the original red oxide primer remains.
It will be removed with the stripper residue with a DA sander and 80 grit paper.


The photo on the left shows the fiberglass extension of the quarters.
Also if you look closely, you can see the gold colored brazing where
the original holes for the '62 quarter trim ornaments were installed.
The photo on the right shows the rolled edge at the rear wheel openings.
DST modified the rear wheel openings to match the front openings
and rolled the edges where they cut it.
How the *&%@ did they do that??


All stripped and ready for refinishing
 

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