allcarfan said:
Id advise against the wire brush as it will leave swirls when you paint.
Not if you use a filler primer. I stripped my whole '67 'vert with a Makita 4" angle grinder and knotted wire cup brushes (it'll take more than one). Trick is to not sit in one spot too long, or you'll heat the metal up and warp it. In my opinion, it gave it a nice "tooth" for the primer to stick to. I was just spray bombing it to keep it from flash rusting (I was in Albuquerque though, it probably wouldn't have mattered), my intent was to take it to a body shop, let them sand the spray primer off, fix the body, then let them paint it and get it back to me for assembly, but alas, it was T-boned just a few weeks before going to the body shop.
I agree with Ron, the cheapest way to strip a car is with razor blades. But I don't use a holder, it was easier doing it by just holding the blade, I felt I had more control (and ended up with more blisters). Once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty fast. This is the way I'm stripping my '65 coupe, I'll use the Dewalt 4" angle grinder and a knotted wire cup brush to clean up anything too hard to get. The razor method leaves no dust, so it doesn't float all over the garage, getting on everything else, just paint chips, which are easy to sweep up or just use a shop vac, so it's the easiest cleanup. Once you get the angle right on the razor blade, don't try flipping it over, it'll dig into the paint then. You can even scrap down to the original paint with a little practice. For some reason, subsequent layers on my car come off easier than the original.