removing old bed liner with a needle gun

[jtauxe]

I have a 1975 Type 2 pickup. The previous owner took it upon himself to give the bed and the inner sides of the gates a coat of bedliner. It has not aged well.

I have tried several methods to remove it down to metal. Wire wheel, aircraft paint stripper, scraping, and now needle gunning, are all time-consuming.

Fortunately, the bedliner is now quite brittle and all these methods worked, but had their own advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage of many was getting into corners and seams. Needle gunning does that well.

My only concern is the condition of the metal left behind, which will of course get painted. The bed itself is thick metal, but now has small pits in it. This detail shows the cleaned lower track of the corrugated bed.

The needle gun is good for getting into hard-to-reach places:

But again I am curious about this finely-pitted finish.

Is this something to avoid?
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[germansupplyscott]

I don't love the teeny pits. You could probably get rid of them with high build primer but the needle gun is a pretty brutal tool to use on sheet metal.

Have you considered media blasting or dry ice blasting?
_________________
SL

[jtauxe]

[Zwitter]

I saw a shop video that showed them using dry ice. Small chunks laid on the surface. That seemed to make the undercoat brittle and it lifted off with a putty knife.