I know for a fact that most of the paint on older cars contains lead. You should always wear proper breathing protection when sanding paint or stripping off old paint. A lot of old cars also have lead filler on them from the factory or from body shop repairs before plastic filler was used. You should be careful not breath the dust from sanding on the lead. Really you should never ever sand lead. Lead should be shaped with a file so it falls to the floor and doesn’t get airborne. If you want to remove lead use a torch to heat it and use a wire brush to get it all off. Just be careful not to breathe the vapors. Use good ventilation when you are doing this.

This is an article written by Ben Van Dusen of the Seattle Classic Car Examiner about other toxic materials that could be present in old cars.

January 31, 2:32 PM
by Ben Van Dusen, Seattle Classic Car Examiner

I wanted to know before tearing apart my old wrecks, just what and where any toxic materials might be. Cars built before World War II do not have our current solidified soup of plastics and plasticizers. I remember the steering wheel of my folk’s 1971 Chevy Nova: something went wrong with the plastic formulation in that model year to cause the plastic to sweat out plasticizer or related liquid. You had to literally mop the stuff off because the wheel was too greasy to grip properly.
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