Chemical Stripping

Leathernek

Leathernek

Senior Member
Well I got the body off my car today, at the expense of throwing my back out! :eek: Anyways, my car has an amateur paint job on it (and that's being nice) and I was thinking about using the aircraft type paint stripper to pull off the crappy paint job.....any thoughts? How have ya'll stripped ur cars in the past? What works best? Thanks!
 
OK, after you have used the paint remover, ...then what? What will you do about the residual substrates (primer, body filler, lead, etc.) that the stripper will not dissolve??

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That's what I'm asking, would chemical stripping be the best method? or would something else be more suitable? My body is full of bondo, and even has some fiberglass patch work (yeah, its a mess)
 
What do you use Brent?
I have used the methylene chloride aircraft strippers and found them to be very good for removing paint and primer from steel and aluminum. Its quick and dirty. The EPA doesn't like it and you should probably collect up the residue and ??
The only problem that I have found is that if you have overlapping pieces the remover is almost impossible to remove and will eventually cause lifting problems with the finale paint.
 
JEC, your last sentence is exactly why I use plastic media to remove the paint followed by aluminum oxide to remove any rust. Pressure for both medias are less than 50 PSI which leaves the metal very smooth and each of these media makes for very fast work. I also use phosphoric acid wash to keep any surface rust at bay while we are doing sheetmetal work.
 
There's a lot of methods out there. The best I found was the aircraft stripper and a lot of elbow grease. I did strip one body utilizing a method where they hook electric probes to the body and dipped several times into some kind of ecologically safe water or liquid that took the paint and the old filler off utilizing electrolysis. When they were done they had a crew that went over the metal with wire brushes in an air grinder. It took several weeks to get the job done but there's no way I'd use them again. Especially when I think about the price I paid and the additional work they talked us into. These guys were snake oil salesman and I truly felt ripped off because the longer they took the more I paid. I don't know how much better an acid dip would have been and in either matter I'm pretty sure the fluid used gets trapped in the body and creates a problem later. I've heard of bead blasting and it might be an OK method as long as they don't warp the metal. But I think the best is aircraft stripper and elbow grease.
 
Leathernek said:
Well I got the body off my car today, at the expense of throwing my back out! :eek: Anyways, my car has an amateur paint job on it (and that's being nice) and I was thinking about using the aircraft type paint stripper to pull off the crappy paint job.....any thoughts? How have ya'll stripped ur cars in the past? What works best? Thanks!
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I have recent experience with aircraft stripper. It works but will take multiple coats to get off any body filler. The different brands are not the same quality. Klean Strip worked best @$43 a gallon (wow the methyl chloride smell would make you faint!), then MasterPro @$28 a gallon and a Rustoleum didn't work at all.

I had the fenders soda blasted which can retain the filler if desired. Jose however took off all the filler as well as the paint. Lead stayed.

If I had to do it again, I'd find someone to plastic media blast it.
 
I hear low pressure media blast here, but I do not believe it , 50 PSI??, the media would not even tickle the metal.

I have been in the blasting game since the 70/s, and if I blast under 95 PSI, I may as well tickle my finger.
 
I found a heat gun and razor scraper works well to remove thick paint and old filler. I've also used a sandblaster with Black Beauty and 40 lbs pressure. As others have mentioned, I wouldn't use stripper in places where it might be caught in cracks or seams.

I bought a real nice Milwaukee heat gun 2 days ago on Craigslist for only $10. It looks like it was never used. It has 12 heat settings ranging from 250* to 1350*, and has a cool setting to cool the gun before putting it back in the case.
Model # MHT3300 if someone wants to look it up.
 
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pooch said:
I hear low pressure media blast here, but I do not believe it , 50 PSI??, the media would not even tickle the metal.

I have been in the blasting game since the 70/s, and if I blast under 95 PSI, I may as well tickle my finger.
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Pooch, I dunno what to tell you other than many times it is even under 40 lbs on the plastic media. The consistancy of the media is like a very fine corn starch, and it is re-used until it just evaporates as dust. Even the aluminum oxide is sprayed at 50 PSI or less.



A couple of points I would make with regard to using the chemical strippers is;

A) Are you really saving any money? If you must buy 4 or 5 gallons of the chemical, pay for the scrapers and disposal materials, PLUS put all that work/labor/elbow grease into the project only to receive an "inferior" job in the end, why bother? Isn't time = money??

B) Aren't you worried about the toxic chemicals around your body? This stuff can be splashed into eyes, absorbed through skin, and even fatal if excessively breathed.

C) Does it concern you regarding folds and/or crevices in the sheetmetal surface that can trap the chemical residue where it can come back and haunt paintwork later on. With the prices of paint & materials, ...and with the amount of labor it takes, is paint remover really the prudent stuff to use??

D) How do you deal with any minor rust issues? Paint remover will only attack some organic materials, --which rust ain't.


Again, everyone has their preferred method of doing things and I am glad this method works for you but for me, the inefficiencies and the dangers far outweigh the good of using of it in my view. I bid you best wishes and stay safe everyone!!
 
Thanks for the info everyone! I'm trying to learn all I can from ya'll where I can restore my car myself instead of having to pay someone to do it for me. It's kinda hard to pay when you don't have any cash! lol
 
Easy-Off Oven cleaner quickly removed most of the (original) paint from my hood pieces, and the residue washed right off with water. I was using it to remove some dried-up greasy crud, and the paint removal was a free bonus. Wouldn't hurt to give it at try, but I'm not sure if it would work as well on a more modern or an enamel paint job.

Doug
 
Just finishing stripping entire coupe. Using fine black diamond from Tractor supply, a 1/8" nozzel, a small pressure blaster, and 40-50 psi (seems impossible to warp a panel at this pressure). It did take about 4-5 days to do every piece of the car. A bigger nozzel and more air (my air compressor only puts out about 18 cfm) would have helped get things done faster.

But when finished, it's clean and the metal surface has good teeth for the primer to stick to. By the way this car was previously dipped and poorly prepped before primer (the way I got). Wouldn't do it any other way other than blasting. Brent's materials would be better though.
 
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I have used Zip Strip .Let it work and wash off with garden hose .Clean with steel wool and sandpaper and prep body for primer .
 
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