Break out the strippers baby!!

[EL1NOR]

It's time for me to start stripping off the paint on my 67 fastback. I want it down to bare metal. I'm also going to strip the engine bay/undercarriage.

Can anyone recommend some good chemical strippers and where to buy them from?

Any tips on how to go about doing this?

Lastly, how long can my car be bare in my garage before surface rust starts to appear?? I'd like to work on it bare because it's easier, but I obviously don't want my Arizona fastback to start rusting anywhere. I'm looking for a good primer to go with Dupont's paint, so any tips would be helpful.

Thanks guys,
-Tim

 

[allcarfan]

aircraft stripper. Can be bought at any paint supply store and I think Walmart. How long your car can stand to be bare metal will depend on the humidity in your area. I know here, bare metal develops surface rust in a matter of hours.

Wear gloves! Thick gloves! Wear a mask. This is a messy and tedious task. I hope you realize what you are getting yourself into. Plan on taking several days of non-stop work to get this done.

GOod luck.

 

[paintballtommy]

when your doin the engine bay/undercarriage id jsut go with an angle grinder and a wire wheel. the chemical stripper wont get all that rubberized paint and gunk off. trust me i tried aircraft remover on my engine bay when i did it and it didnt get half the paint off even with 3 applications. wire wheel is a littl3 emore labor intensive but twice as fast imo. i had my car in my garage down to bare metal for almost 4 weeks and didnt get surface rust or anything. oh also before you go to prime or paint wipe everything down with mineral spirits of denatured alcohol to get it real clean.

 

[allcarfan]

What kind of wire wheel did you use? My wire wheels barely get paint off, let alone, take it down to bare metal. Fill me in so i can hit up Home Depot

The aircraft stripper is a tricky thing to use. I use it to remove powdercoating. However, I used it on my car, and it barely broke the paint in some areas.

 

[cardude]

Hey I got all excited, thought we were talking about strippers!!

oh... wait.... I get it.....

seriously, I have used the aircraft stripper on a different project and it lifted the paint up nicely and it was good for those hard to reach places that you cant get a wire wheel into, not sure about undercoating though.

just a note on using the stuff be careful about leaving it on plasic pieces and it is really messy cleanup have a trash can and a lot of throw away towels available to use.

 

[paintballtommy]

i cant rememebr what wheels i used they were semi coarse and i used the cups more than i used the wheels for the most part. the wheels were good to get into corners and what not but yeah dont worry too much about gouging the sheetmetal i didnt have a problem. ill see if i can find a used wheel and give you the specs.
later,
tommy

 

[1973mach1]

I have a big angle grinder and a 6in wire wheel for it, It is hard to control but will get me down to bare metal in a matter of seconds and covers alot of ground. For the undercoating in the fender wells I used aircraft stripper in several applications but a hammer and scraper worked even better IMO for undercoating.

Jim

 

[brtnstrns]

aircraft stripper worked magic on my car when i used it...wasnt really messy or anything...just put a plastic bag over my hand and sprayed..then 30 minutes later i scraped it off with a flexible putty knife thing...worked great...through all layers of paint to the metal...just apply a pretty thick coat

 

[65straightsick]

Personally i agree with cardude, get back to the subject on hand, strippers....

 

[jikelly]

After two days going at my old paint with a sander I went to the store and bought a whole mess of the aircraft stripper stuff. What would have taken a week to do with the sanding wheel and grinder took like a day with the acid/stripper stuff. Just don't get it on your skin. Man does it burn!

 

[Ferf]

I vote for aircraft stripper also. I used this on my entire car.

First, lay down a thick layer of the stuff. Then place a plastic sheet over the section that you just placed the stripper on. Carefully press down on the plastic to work out the air bubbles. Let it sit for about 30 - 45 min. and then remove the plastic. A lot of the paint and stripper will come up with the plastic making less of a mess. Then hose down the section with water (this neutralizes the stripper). Then take a putty scrapper and remove any excess gunk. Finally, take a razzor blade and scrape any of the remaining paint off.

later,

Chris

 

[EL1NOR]

Nice! Thanks for the help guys!

I've got a couple more questions I'll save for later..

-Tim