Technical Want to buy a new bodyworking tool

I'm going to buy a new bodyworking tool for my arsenal. This will surely be the one that finally makes my bodyworking skills something to be proud of. Anyway, I'm looking at getting a Surface Conditioning Tool. There are some less expensive ones and some pretty expensive ones. The wheels that go on them all look similar, so I'm wondering if they are a standard size and fit all manufacturers?
Anybody have one they want to recommend?

 

Looks to be an altered grinder , I have found the grinder to be to fast and put off to much heat as well ( regular grinder 11000 rpm) and have found that a drill works much better !!!

 

Make sure it is variable speed. Mine is 1-6 and they work better and get less gummed up around 3 or 4. Get the lightest one.

 

Be prepared for a bunch of guys who have never used one to give their opinion on why not to buy one. It happens every time this particular tool is brought up.

 

These have been reviewed here before. The two no-names weren't mentioned and probably weren't out yet, but the Porter Cable and the Eastwood were. These are basically stripping tools, and from what I saw are only really good for removing paint and surface rust (no pitting). The drums aren't all that cheap and you do need to make sure they're not proprietary to just that brand, which was the case for the Eastwood and Porter Cable. The review is here...

These struck me personally as a solution looking for a problem.

 

I've got an Eastwood Contour and really like what I can do with it but it is a bit on the heavy side. It worked better on paint and light surface rust than on serous rust though. I took a surface rusted fender on my OT car that had had the factory new fender shipping coating on it for way too many miles down to bare shiny metal in about five minutes and had it ready to wipe down for primer.

This is my Eastwood contour on the passenger door that I am going to stretch for my 48's stretch cab.

Second shot is after working on it with that drum that was on the contour for about 1 minute at most.

Third shot is a close up and my vertical cut line will be just inside of those dents. It does a nice job but with it's weight you do get a workout. Best thing is that it doesn't gouge the metal.

 

be sure to let us know how it works out!

 

If it's just for stripping paint, all you need are a few of these strip discs..........
Blackhawk strip discs

I'm getting ready to strip the paint down to bare metal on my '54. I heard about these composite discs so I bought a cheap one at HF just to try it out. Slapped it on my 4" angle grinder and it took it down to bare metal in seconds! No heat! Just ordered the above strip discs and that should be enough for the entire car. You'll get the same workout with your angle grinder as you would with the Eastwood tool but you'll have an extra $200 in you wallet!

 

As others have stated, the Eastwood SCT Contour is good for stripping paint and light rust but won't remove deep rust. Use the aggressive 21970 drum to strip paint and filler. I haven't found the interleaf or flap drums to be that useful for anything other than removing scratches.

 

Im in the Blackhawk corner , besides being on a cheap or good four inch grinder , its easier to guide the shit blowing off to where you want it.

 

Same here Blackhawk disc or equivalent...

 

I use these and I also have smaller ones for my die grinder

 

I have a somewhat similar pneumatic Snap-On tool called the "crud thug". Kind of useless.

 

Thanks to everyone for the responses. The video from Crazy Steve was very good.

 

I looked up the 21970 and they are normally $50 each. How long do they last ? Most of the other ones are less expensive, but thats pretty steep if they don't last a long time. I don't mind paying the extra bucks for a quality tool, but I don't want to it to be one of those situations like ink for printers.

 

I bought 1 from Eastwood It is alright I was kinda disappointed in it I would not buy it if I had tried 1 1st

 

The cost of the drums was one of the deal-breakers for me. Now, it appears that the Jegs and Amazon versions may use the same drums which might produce some price competition but I'm very gunshy about tools that use proprietary consumables. I've thrown away a couple of tools in the past because the tools/supplies went off the market for whatever reason.

I will say that I love 'surface conditioning' abrasives for non-aggressive material removal; they're the very best I've found for prepping aluminum for polishing, reducing prep time over sanding by half at least. And there's a huge variety of discs available for more 'generic' tools that IMO will do pretty much the same job as these specialty tools for much less $$.

 

I thought this was just a glorified afro disc (polycarbonate) tool with expensive consumables. And it might be. But I have a couple friends of mine who do some really high end paint and body work, and they swear by Eastwood SCT. When the time comes for me to do some real metal work, I'll buy one and give it a shot.

 

Useless…throw a 3M clean and strip Disc on an angle grinder and call it good

 

3-4 hours ,couple of 3m disks and my drill and the whole car is done , drill works better than the grinder and not as much mess .Most times I will remove the paint with a razor blade and just deal with the primer .Can strip the paint with a razor in a few hours
Much rather deal with flakes than dust in the shop especially ..

 

I've had my Eastwood model for some time now and am happy with it. I've found other uses for it as well (When you have a new hammer, everything looks like a nail). One of the features that may differentiate it from a cheaper version is that when you hit the start button, it comes up to speed gradually. You don't have to worry about torque tearing it out of your hands. Top speed is also limited like a buffer as opposed to a grinder.

 

I've stripped two quarters, two fenders, hood, valence and tag panel. It's still hanging in there. I'm gonna guess it will last about one whole car.

 

Just got my Summit tools and equipment catalog and they had these which look similar to the Porter Cable.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-900225

 

If it’s half as good as the videos then I’d give one a shot.

 

I picked up the Eastwood one a few years ago, The drums form Amazon fit fine they are slightly larger and come close to rubbing on the guard but work fine. I haven't used it for any body work yet and don't know that it would be that useful. I works great for stainless and aluminum fab work when trying to blend in a brushed finish.

 

Call me ol'School... But an 8" with a box of 40 / 80 grit depending how crappy the finish is...
Plus if you've never used one to make shit flat... You will be amazed!! Haven't used my airboard in decades... Except onc e in awhile in a tight spot...

 

My step dad was a body man for 50 yrs and swore by 1 of these. He used a board file too but 85% of his work was done with a 8" sander.

Said the same thing too, you could make anything flat with it.... And he did too. Always impressed me with how he could manipulate it.

Did some amazing body work with just that and fast too, sadly I never picked that skill up.

 

I have had the Eastwood SCT for a few years, bought it to refinish stainless commercial coffee brewers and, with practice, it can mimic a decent #4 brushed finish. I also bought a bunch of the other drums but haven't tried too many out. I'll have to look into the Amazon copies as well...

 

I got a cheapo one off Ebay for about $80. Replacement drums are about $20. I got it for final finishing of patch panels etc and was principally inspired by Flops amazing work. Previously I couldn't remove marks from the surface without feeling as if I was thinning away the metal with the DA sander. This machine does it with ease. It also makes very short work of any surface rust that might have developed. My metalworking skills aren't necessarily improved by it but the much improved appearance of work done give me a warm fuzzy feeling which is more than worth the price of the machine. And it's also inspiring me to improve my metal bashing skills. Oh, and it removes the polished finish that the shrinking disc makes much easier than the DA does.

Chris

 

looks like a shortcut for lazy people.