Hurry up and wait

You think it would simply be a matter of looking up the numbers of a few local businesses that do media blasting, give them a call and arrange to have all the paint and crud stripped off your old Studebaker.

I'm sure this would be the case if I lived in a major metropolitan area.

But here in my small-town corner of Oregon, there are only 2 media blasters. One--the one I'd prefer to do my car, hasn't returned my calls for the last 2 weeks.  The other, who I finally called since the other wasn't responding, told me that he only blasted the edges--he wouldn't do the flat areas of the large panels because he was afraid of the heat warping it.

This was not reassuring.

So this weekend I ignored my car. I worked on other projects around the house and pondered. What to do?

Then, this afternoon, I remembered reading in the Studebaker Driver's Club forums about how Avanti owners would use a razor blade scraper to remove paint, since the fiberglass their cars were made of required special care. And I thought what the hell; anything is worth a try. So I rolled the car out of the garage, managed to find my razor blade scraper without much effort--and even a couple of blades.

It was amazing.

I stripped 3/4 of the roof down to primer in about 30 minutes. I only stopped because I'd managed to break both of my blades.

It would've taken me at least twice as long to remove it with a rotary tool and abrasive

I'll pick up more razor blades so I can finish the top, then try a couple of the bigger panels. If things go as well as the roof, I'll at least save money on the media blasting. I'll also explore to see if there are ways to get into all the nooks and crannies--maybe I won't need to media blast at all?