Why Not to Strip Paint

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@xxxxxxxxx>]

As I alluded to in another posting, three summers ago I got tired of the
following conversation with myself:

"You know, I've always thought that the step-front Giulia GT is one of
the most beautiful cars ever made.  So why am I putting up with having
the ugliest car I've ever seen?"

This led to the purchase of sanders, which led to the purchase of
grinders, which led to the purchase of Jasco Paint Stripper and heavy
rubber gloves, which led to what I called, by the end of the summer, my
"DeLorean-Alfa" -- brushed steel (alas, not stainless, and thank heaven
for California's dry climate!)

As I was rubbing Jasco into the paint, I noticed a couple of
interesting, and at the time confusing, facts.  Most confusing was that
the color coat applied at the factory -- a pale acqua blue, more or less
the color of the bottom of a Beverly Hills swimming pool -- had, in many
places, apparently been applied over a rather thick layer of body
filler.  Rather thick?  Up to 1/8" in places, in places nearly 1/4".

In talking about this with various Alfisti with paint and bodywork
experience (as well as with my friend who was unfortunately going
through some ex[t,p]ensive bodywork repairs on his 1966 Ferrari 330GT
2+2), it turns out that the state of the panel-pressing art in the mid
Sixties was not up to the visual demands of Bertone, at least.  So
standard procedure was to fit the panels onto the car, and then have
workers hand-apply filler to get various bits of the car to line up
properly.

In the case of the low-volume 330, it was even more interesting and I
hope the off-topic vehicle will be forgiven: many of the panels on that
car revealed that they appeared to have been constructed of a number of
strips -- like a steel seminole quilt, if you will -- that were then
hammer-welded into place on the body buck.  For those with an interest
in this subject, there's a picture on my friend's Web site: 

http://www.dimebank.com/images/9161/LFlight.jpg

The lighting isn't ideal for the point we're making, but I got to see it
in person and when you can move your head to catch the changing
reflections, it's obvious.

In any case, the economics of Italy in the mid Sixties were such that
the factory could hire and train workers for little enough that they
could afford to spend now-precious hand labor on getting the panels to
line up.  Today, of course, factories pay millions of dollars to
robotics companies (well, to SOME robotics companies, anyway, right
Jack?) to get machines that do it properly the first time. 

It's not that simple or inexpensive today, and removing the bottom layer
of filler -- under the factory paint and primer -- is therefore an
expensive step to take.  It's also ruinously hard work, and I don't
recommend undertaking it lightly.  I wouldn't do it again, for instance,
unless the rust was so pervasive that you needed to see the entire car
body in its naked splendor.

That was kinda fun, though of course I was disappointed to learn that
the bodywork was *not* aluminum.  Oh well.

- --Scott Fisher

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