stripping paint

i have a 91 silv and plan to get it repainted soon.. im wanting to do all the prep work myself.. i dont know a whole lot but i do know doin the prep work will save me tons .. whats the best way to go about gettin the paint off... i put on a rollpan already and used a paint remover on a drill to take the paint off the tailgate but that took forever and the metal is fairly rough now.. is there an easier way? also i have a stepside bed so its fiberglass... what would be the best way to take the paint off the bed without gettin into the gelcoat of the fiberglass and screwing up my bed? whats the best way to get it off the metal and leave the metal smooth?

aircraft stripper, idk wut itll do to the fiberglass if anything but aircraft stripper wokrs real quick, put it on wait and scrap it off easy

orbital sander w/80 or 120 grit paper.

BTW, when you paint it you do NOT have to remove all the old paint. just what is peeling.

im planning to prime the whole truck tho so before i prime it shouldnt i rough the paint up so the primer sticks.. and if so should i use an orbital sander to do this?

Yes rough it with the orbital (and by hand in body line and stuff) with about 120-220 paper. remember, all you have to do is scuff it up, it doesn't have to be really rough for primer and paint to stick.

IT IS NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY TO REMOVE ALL OLD PAINT.

Most of the time you are just creating even more work for yourself. The body shop I work has 4 restores we are working on. Only the '55 Bel Air has been stripped to bare metal. We have a '66 Impala that should have been stripped due to the # of layers of different paint jobs it has had. This car was painted I think we counted 11 times!!! Hell, there was so much paint on the vehicle, we hardly had to use any bondo!! As I said though, this car SHOULD have been stripped but customer wasn't ready to drop a minimum if $10,000 for his paint job. Then we have a Corvair and a '65 Galaxie. Niether of these had the paint totally stripped and the Galaxie is more beautiful than ever.

Anyways, before you go wasting time and $$$ (materials), tell me WHY you believe you have to strip all your paint. Explain the condition of your paint IN DETAIL. Any cracks? Oxidation? Whatever you see wrong with it, tell me. I'm willing to bet you DO NOT have to strip it. I gave broughy84 some pointers, I'm willing to give you some too.

Also........not necessary to primer the whole truck. Again, you are most likely gonna create more work than necessary. And 120 grit is WAY TOO ROUGH for primer. You will have hellifide sand scatches you can see through the paint garaunteed. I'll wait on your response with your paint condition before you get too far ahead of yourself.

yeah im gonna use a d.a. sander on mine theres a lot of rust in the rockers so i want to be sure to get it all and all...

I agree with most on here that you don't have to strip everything unless your entire truck is a rust bucket, but I doubt that. Just get what you need sanded down then prime it. Paint should stick to your factory clear coat (as should the primer).

I havnt done anything yet cept take the paint off the tailgate, and primed it. Also molded in my rollpan with bondo and sanded it smooth and primed it. the paint itself is in good condition other than the fact that on the bed where its fiberglass the paint is faded, theres some scratches that are fairly deep but shouldnt i beable 2 fill these in with bondo and be ok? I appreciate your help man, I don't plan to prime the whole truck anymore just the the scratches smooth and a few dents. As far as saving money on the paint job, what would be the BEST way to go about this without wasting a TON of time.