I've had several people tell me that stipping the car with a razor blade worked well for them. Once you develop the technique it goes pretty fast.

I'm in favor of chemical stripping and lots of technique. The worst thing you can do with that stuff is slop it on indiscriminately. paint it evenly, like if you were painting a house, let it work for a while - hour or two, scrape off with a putty knife and repeat as necessary. sometimes a second coat before putty knife helps if the paint is thick. i like to get it all off in one scraping instead of multiple applications, if possible.

Never never never let stripper sit on bare fiberglass, and if youre down to the last layer of factory primer, it doesn't take hours to work. scrape it off in 10 minutes or so. if left on bare glass, it eats the resin, albeit very slowly and can delaminate the filberglass layers.

i use some kind of ammonia smelling stuff from the local paint supply house. its a puke light brown yellow color - which turns blacker with age after opening the can and letting it sit for months-years.

i like to do final wash with steel wool and cheep lacquer thinner, this picks up the final paint and i think neutrallizes the stripper. this also degreases and decruds pretty good, so you can go direct to sanding and body work. i like 80 to 100 grit for bare glass, as it doesnt cut too deeply, but leaves tooth for primer coats.

-jim

my biggest mistake was not using a media blaster. do it the correct way use media. i went with a chemical stripper captain lees?? i started in december and im still sanding the leftovers. This was the biggest mistake ive made ever. the product was pretty pricey as well. It has also been very labor intensive. chemical stripping works great on flat panels but little areas like door jambs it doesnt work well with.

Good advice. I've used a chemical "fiberglass-safe" stripper, and it caused me more problems than it was really worth. However, another coat solved the "excess" that was causing me problems.

If the lacquer thinner will neutralize the stripper, please let me know. I think that is the only thing that keeps me from doing the stripper again. The stripper was the easiest way to go, but I fear some of the stripper hanging out in a knook or cranny and nipping my end-result paint job in the backside.

Comments?

sharktooth said: Good advice. I've used a chemical "fiberglass-safe" stripper, and it caused me more problems than it was really worth. However, another coat solved the "excess" that was causing me problems. If the lacquer thinner will neutralize the stripper, please let me know. I think that is the only thing that keeps me from doing the stripper again. The stripper was the easiest way to go, but I fear some of the stripper hanging out in a knook or cranny and nipping my end-result paint job in the backside. Comments?

I've used Chemical strippers on several vettes. As mentioned earlier, I also do a final clean and scrub with a solvent grade laquer thinner and coarse steel wool, 5 gallons for about $25 around here. I've never had residual stripper come back to haunt me.
Between the strippers and solvents, any previous body work will suffer, but I always rework those places regardless, I'd rather have my own body work under my paint than someone elses.

daveb12 said: Between the strippers and solvents, any previous body work will suffer, but I always rework those places regardless, I'd rather have my own body work under my paint than someone elses.

I couldnt agree more

|UPDATED|7/28/2004 6:53:48 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|