Hi Dean,
I'll leave the mechanical advice to Deejay and give you some advice on the paint. I've been painting for some time on a semi-professional level and tried most paints and paint removal methods.
There's a few ways you can go about removing the paint, all have some pros and cons. Using a sander or grinder is fairly time consuming unless you're working with plain, flat surfaces. You can't get into corners and grooves and if you're a little too hard on it and end up with some scratches in the metal, they'll show through the paint unless you fill them and re-sand them.
Paint stripper is popular but it's nasty stuff if it touches your skin and makes a hell of a mess. I've used a commercial paint removal company once that used chemical baths to remove paint and rust and they did a fantastic job. Once the paint is stripped, you'll still need to sand the entire surface lightly before priming to ensure you get good adhesion.
Sandblasting is my preferred method as it's quick, easy and gets into all of the little corners and grooves etc and gives you a nice surface ready to prime. There's different grades of abrasive from very fine to quite coarse, you just need to be careful not to go too coarse. If you want something fairly mild, glass beads are great otherwise you can use garnet for heavier work. If you only need one job done, get an abrasive blasting company to do the work for you as decent size blasting cabinets aren't cheap and they need a lot of air to run them. I have a cabinet than can easily accommodate a model 45 frame but the cabinet and compressor cost around $8000 and need 3 phase power.
As for the paint, there's three main choices, enamel, acrylic lacquer and 2k. Enamel and acrylic are readily available in aerosol cans or can be mixed in a tin for spray gun application. 2k is what is used in professional paint shops but contains isocyanate and should only be applied in a spray booth with adequate breathing gear and suits.
Enamel tends to be a little harder wearing than acrylic but is slow to dry, usually overnight to touch and then a week or more before it is fully cured. It's glossy out of the can or gun but once the finish starts to age over time, there's little you can do to bring it back. Enamel has the least amount of colour choices.
Acrylic lacquer has been around for decades and was the common choice for automotive manufacturers to paint cars with up until the mid 90's. There's easily 40,000 colours available including metallics and pearls. It's not glossy when applied and needs to be wet sanded and polished to get a shine but can look absolutely stunning if done right. Acrylic dries really quickly, especially at this time of the year, usually 10 seconds to touch. The other great thing is in 10 years time when the finish looks a little faded, you can used ordinary car polish and wax to restore the shine. The major drawback is it is labour intensive to paint with.
2k is for the pros but it's fantastic stuff. It's the hardest wearing of all, cures quickly, can be wet sanded and buffed years down the track if needed, copes well with heat and solvents, the primers have high builds and the colour choices are endless. Unfortunately the chemicals used are very hazardous to your health and it's not safe or legal for home use.
As for the primers, you'll need to match the primer to the type of paint you decide on. Enamel primer for enamel, acrylic for acrylic. Enamel can be applied over acrylic lacquer but acrylic cannot be applied over enamel.
Hows that for some light reading?
Hope this helps with your decision.
Michael
