Thanks for all the info! I really appreciate everyone taking the time to help me out.

I'm actually not in a hurry at all. I just happen to have a little time this week between semesters and wanted to experiment.

The coatings that were on it are cracking and peeling. The last two coats of primer were simply applied to keep it from rusting away (been sitting in a garage since the 70s). There is also some...questionable....bodywork underneath one of the fenders that I'll need to get to in order to fix. It definitely needed to be removed.

I tried the aircraft remover and it worked great. There is still a little paint left behind, but nothing that will take a huge amount of time to fix. I'll probably hit it one more time with water and again with a solvent to neutralize it, but all in all I'm impressed.

Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to try the aircraft stripper on part of the fender to see how it works. I figure there aren't too many spots on the fender that can hide the stripper from being washed off so it's probably the best place to experiment.

What is everyone's prefered method of removing paint/primer? My '39 has what looks like 2 coats of primer on top of a coat of black lacquer on top of another coat of primer. Finally all of that is on top of what appears to be the original Packard Blue lacquer. So that makes 5 layers I guess.

I have a random-orbit sander with 80 grit paper. That has been doing pretty well, but it is still slow going. I also have a small syphon fed blaster for smaller parts (I know not to use it on large pieces of sheetmetal).

Several people I've talked to have recommended aircraft stripper. Has anyone used this? What are the pros and cons?

I thought that might be the case after doing a little digging around on here. Will contact the seller to let him know that I got something I shouldn't have.

Got the vehicle number plates. There are two of them. One gives the vehicle number as 2271-9-3077 with a paint scheme of B and a trim code of 403. I know that the paint scheme is for Packard Blue, but I can't find the 403 trim code. I know that it has the remnants of tan beford cord in though. The other has a number of 1292-1339 showing a dealer name of McCormack Bros Moter Car Co Inc in Birmingham, AL with a date of 7-31-39.

I'm not too far from Gadsden. Went through there this afternoon. The car definitely won't be ready to drive by that time, but I'd love to come look and ask questions.

The BDN is 512941. I'll get the VN # for you as soon as I have it. The plate is in a box that is being delivered sometime this weekend. The last owners took it off to paint it and never put it back on. They do have it though.

I just wanted to stop in and introduce myself. I'll be lurking around and probably asking a lot of questions very soon. I just bought a 1939 4-door 120. I actually know very little about car restoration, but it looks like I'll be learning.