Chemical Stripper Question

[69LS1SixSpeed]

Does anyone have any recommendation on what brand of chemical stripper to use to remove paint on my car. I have decided to do it myself and same some money and not media blast because I'm not going to tear the car completely down. I checked out Pep Boys/Auto Zone and they have some Aircraft stripper that they sell for approximatley $21 per gallon. Has anyone used this product? Does anyone have any recommendation on what you can buy over the counter that will work reasonally well in terms of removing the old paint? Thanks for your input!

[toxicz28]

I "won" a plaque from a bridge that I did demolition on. It had 96 years (5/16" 8 distinct different colors(one looked like Hugger Orange)) worth of lead paint on it, and the aircraft stripper did the job good! It took a while, because of the ammount, and I think the last coat was a heavy coat of epoxy(10+ mil). Keep in mind, skin and breathing protection. You don't want to get it on you(acid burns) and if you're doing the inside of the car, in the garage, the fumes get pretty powerful.

Oh yeah, make sure you get rid of all of the stripper before you do anything else. You don't want to start spraying only to have it wrinkle up and fall off before it even cures.

[67ragtp]

Just finished stripping my 67 camaro coupe using aircraft stripper. It worked out well, I had two paint jobs to remove and the factory primer. It cut through the paint with know problem, the red factory primer was difficult, I had to DA sand it off with 100grit and worked out great. This stuff is nasty, wear good acid resistant gloves, long sleve shirt, eye protection and make sure your in a well ventalated area. I did mine in the garage and most of the time I wore a reperator with acid filters. Believe me, Im not being anal, the stuff stinks and burns real bad when it hits your skin. Another tip is to get yourself some duct tape and cover up the areas you dont want the stuff to get in, like the roof drip rail. You dont want this stuff in places you cant get it out. I found that if you remove it before the recomended set time it was easier to work with, a 4inch and a 1 inch spackle knife and push it off, you really dont have to scrape to deep, let the chemical do the work. Neutralize afterwards, I would really like to hear what others do to neutralize this stuff. Good luck- Rich

[ProdigyCustoms]

I use a firm bondo spreader and rough steel wool. I avoid steel knifes of any kind. Tape the edges between panels, do one panel at a time and put some plastic on the floor under the panel to be striped. You will be able to collect the mess, and also will not stain the floor. Also, the aircraft stripper is avaiable in aresols at Walmart here. It works pretty good.

[Jim Nilsen]

I used the stripper from the makers of POR15 and it worked well . It is safer to use compared to other strippers and is more environmentaly freindly.

It took the paint off of the car and the bondo in thin layers but it left the original lead primer. I was advised many things by many people but the paint store I bought the paint from said it would be alright to leave the lead primer on as long as I nuetralized it.

I used it to block out the car to find the low spots and what was left I primered with dp90 PPG epoxy primer. It all worked out great and it saved me a lot of time and labor stripping it to bare metal. I also blocked out for high spots on all of the other ecoated GM factory panels and primered over it.

I would use it again to do a car and as was stated ,no metal scrapers ,only plastic.

Also get some extra sprayers since they sometimes go bad quickly enough to need them. Sometimes they last 3 applications but not more than that from my experience.

Jim Nilsen

[jeffandre]

The stripper works great, just follow all safety AND common sense guidelines. I used many coats to finish off my car years ago, it had tons of bondo and multiple coats of paint. Do not get it on rubber or plastic as it will eat that too! I had applied a nice fresh coat to finish off the rear tail of my 71 Camaro and a buddy stopped by inquiring about the work. Before I could stop him he leaned forward and his groin area rested on the fresh stuff! I told him he had better go home and wash the stuff off, but he said no problem, he'll take car eof it in a minute...next thing I know he's screaming from pain and asking me what I did to him?!?! He sped home and jumped in a tub of water for a while. Good luck, watch out for kids and pets in the area,

[JoshStratton]

I thought I would follow up on this post. I posted in another thread a while back, but dont remember where. I received a response, but do not remember what it was.

How do you neutralize Aircraft paint remover? The P-Sheet says to use water, but water on bare metal spells disaster. Do you use the water, wipe it off immediately...let it dry some more, and then sand the bare metal down?