STORY LINE:  ‘STRIP AND PAINT IT’ … All at one location. And it’s simple.

It has been said that I have coined the phrase, that, “Technology has passed necessity.” True it may very well be … as how hard it is to simply sometimes just change a radio station in one of the new cars. Or to turn off some of the automatic memory gizmo’s so the tilt/telescopic steering column does NOT pin you in your very own car when you are trying to exit. So it is too, with some new paint systems, where the painter must where a ‘space suit’ so as not to pass out and maybe leave this fair planet we call Mother Earth. Stripping the surfaces bare for paint application was once exaspiratin’ too. Not so today thanks to a local firm called STRIP-IT.

This is not an advertisement for STRIP-IT, this is an acknowledgment of what is available to you and I as the consumer and a thank you to Stacy Frank who brought STRIP-IT to us and his genuine care for the hobbyist.                

A little STRIP-IT History 101. Stacy started the company in January of 1993 and since that date over 5,000 vehicles have been virtually ‘blasted’ clean to a ‘body-in-white’ state for the  professional and hobbyist auto restorer/rebuilder. The process is simple. STRIP-IT utilizes a plastic media blasting procedure to remove old finishes and glass bead blasting to remove rust. Both are clean and gentle and effective ways to get to the substrate-using recycled plastic media, environmentally safe processes and-without the toxicity of chemicals or the possible warpage that occurs with sandblasting.

  Precision removal of paint from metal surfaces without causing pitting, stretching or metal loss is not an easy job for the do-it-yourselfer  as it ain’t a clean process in your backyard and it is tough work. Having someone else do it is simple and is absolutely stressless. I know first hand as I have done it, stripping both metal and wood-not fun. STRIP-IT … this is the commercial part, does and has done, stripped that is; aerospace and aircraft components, motor vehicles and motorcycles, commercial and industrial equipment, marine vessels and equipment, and … barbecues, ovens, whole busses, patio furniture and even jet skis.

And if stripping the piece isn’t enough, STRIP-IT also has the ‘cure for cancer in cars’ with a process of spraying pure metal onto the surface, filling in rust holes while also galvanizing the area. Want more? You can rent time in a state-of-the-art semi downdraft spray booth at STRIP-IT  … and paint your car or truck. 

  The pictures tell it all, from incoming, to the outgoing finished and painted product. Thank you Stacy Frank … for good, simple and clean technology-that is necessary. STRIP-IT, 36427 Groesbeck just south of Metro Parkway. 586-792-7705.

  TOP HAT JOHN can be contacted for story leads, vehicle appraisals, or questions at: P.O. Box 46024, Mt. Clemens, MI., 48046-6024; or call 586-465-1933