Stripping evil paint

[Tylinol]

Hi everyone. I have a '75 VW bus and a '72 Fiat 850 spider, and while I plan on painting the bus eventually I want to learn on my far less valuable Fiat. Hopefully I won't get banned for this

Anyway, I'm currently stripping the paint down to bare metal. I tries chemical strippers, starting with weak household stuff and going up to Klean Strip Aircraft paint stripper in a spray can from the FLAPS. None of them even lifted a flake off of the (non original) paint that's currently on the car.
This was after thoroughly cleaning and scoring the panel to make sure the stripper had something to grab on to.

I've had some luck with a heat gun and putty knife but it will take a long time to do the whole car like that. So my question is, is there a more aggressive paint stripper out there that I should bother trying? Does a prooer can/brush work significantly better than the aerosol can?

Thanks!
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75 Deluxe Microbus - Finally alive and kicking!

72 Fiat 850 Spider - Finally alive and...oh wait, never mind...wait there it goes!...whoops, false alarm...oh - wait wait...nope, nothing.

[luckystiff]

i've never had a paint that aircraft stripper wouldn't take off. i do think the brush on seems to work a little better than the spray can type but both have always worked well for me.

one thing on using aircraft stripper. BE CAREFUL. i usually stop brushing it on about 2" or so from all edges and work my way inward on the panel to make damned sure none get in any cracks or crevases. if it does it will wreck EVERYTHING you do afterwards until you remove all traces. so i try to avoid edges so no little unseen glops go there. those edges are easy enough to strip with 80 grit on a DA. i've seen several nightmares in the paint booth from a hidden missed glop of stripper. didn't react with primer but as soon as paint was sprayed it went nuts...ken....
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ITMC
Secret Service

[Tylinol]

Good tip for keeping it out of edges. Since the original paint is intact in the interior I'm only painting the outside, which is literally almost completely flat (Bertone for ya...)

About two thirds of the surface area of the car is also removable, so I'm kind of doing this one panel at a time - not sure if I should do the whole paint process on each panel one at a time or just get them all in primer first?
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75 Deluxe Microbus - Finally alive and kicking!

72 Fiat 850 Spider - Finally alive and...oh wait, never mind...wait there it goes!...whoops, false alarm...oh - wait wait...nope, nothing.

[JerryMCarter1]

why are you removing the paint?
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Experience always triumphs over hearsay and You get to select which theory to believe

[Tylinol]

The car was originally white, and all of the interior metal still has the original paint, but the exterior is red and the original paint long gone. I'm going back to the factory white and have some very minor bodywork to do, so the paint has to come off.
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75 Deluxe Microbus - Finally alive and kicking!

72 Fiat 850 Spider - Finally alive and...oh wait, never mind...wait there it goes!...whoops, false alarm...oh - wait wait...nope, nothing.

[JerryMCarter1]

You did not ask for an opinion here- but it has always been a rule of thumb to never strip the body to the metal. Usually you leave chemicals and not many know how to metal prep and then the problem of trapping the water molecule under the primer-- the whole ball of wax can be a real negative. As a result of this PPG and many paint manufacturers have developed two part epoxy sealers that will seal all old pain - It is dead anyway and it already seals from water and works like a filler.
They have had great success with this and I started using it in the early 70's very successfully.
For some odd reason many people just grind to the metal and no one has ever really suggested this to them.

Hot Rod magazine did a special on these years ago with an army of chemists and they also approved and believe in the sealers.

Hey good luck -- send pics
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Experience always triumphs over hearsay and You get to select which theory to believe

[Tylinol]

Interesting - I was under the impression that anything less than stripping the paint was a bit of a hack job. So does one only strip to metal on the areas that need attention? I have a few pinholes and some bondo to deal with throughtout the car. There is a lot of red paint, but some of it peeled off with duct tape ( long story ) and there are spots of primer here and there.

Don't get me wrong; I'd love to be able to skip the metal stripping part, but if it's going to impact the final product or cause me to miss parts of the body that need attention I'm more than willing to learn metal prep.

Edit: Not debating anything you said, just want to make sure that these systems will work with a car that needs as much help as mine.
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75 Deluxe Microbus - Finally alive and kicking!

72 Fiat 850 Spider - Finally alive and...oh wait, never mind...wait there it goes!...whoops, false alarm...oh - wait wait...nope, nothing.

[JerryMCarter1]

NO body shop is stripping a car completely to the metal -- well I have never heard of one.
You only need to grind the rust spots then fill with either bondo or two part epoxy
Then sand flat - let it dry according to the product manufacturer’s recommendation and then prime or fully seal the entire car before paint. - sealer is not primer it is not paint !
I have been out of the business for a few years but some of the guys in here can walk you through it probably better than I
I got used to one system and then stuck to it- select a product supplier and get the spec sheets and read them. Follow them religiously and they will guarantee the results. Even refund you pain money if you have trouble.
I like PPG but it is much more expensive than Nason -- Nason stuff is good.
I painted over 600 cars at my shop -- followed the never grind to metal unless absolutely needed for over 40 years. Some of my stuff is still around and looks like new

Jerry
You can e- mail me off the thread if you want a more personal discussion.
Some of the guys in here think I am nuts !

hahahahahaha let them grind away !
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Experience always triumphs over hearsay and You get to select which theory to believe

[modok]

what if the car has 6 layers of paint like a gobstopper?
what if the old paint is riddled with hundreds of rusty rock chips?

strip it if the paint it has is no good

But you don't have to strip everything, just the areas that need it
80 grit sanding pad on a grinder takes it off pretty fast, but, well, you have to have good control
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Glen Urban

[pinballwiz]

The best stripper I have come across is Dad's Easy Spray Paint Remover. I picked it up a can at ACE hardware. Spray on and wipe off to bare metal. Very strong stuff. It is a thick gel type of spray.
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58 Kombi

[Heavens4Real]

how many layers did the stripper remove?

[pinballwiz]

[joemo5]

Jerry,

Wow...I don't know what to do now....I just started stripping my 1970 Beetle Convert and now I don't know if I should keep on or just sand, prime, then paint......

[Mike Fisher]

You could strip your 1970 Beetle Convert to bare metal with 10 of the various 3M stripping discs. It might take a week, but you will be happier in the long run.
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http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/mr_bojangles500/
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,71,71,71 AT,72,72 AT Parts
56 & 57 oval ragtop $2,500

[JerryMCarter1]

Who are these people that reconmend stripping paint of to metal ?

Man I just don't get it ?????
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Experience always triumphs over hearsay and You get to select which theory to believe

[chbix]

im in the early stages of a 65 sunroof. And so far I have found at least 5 layers of paint on this thing. Top is a dark gry, then white, then red, then an offwhite/tan color then a blue something...

There are many problem areas that im looking at from a hack job repair done by PO. Including a botched rear apron repair, and some crappy inner fender rust repair that looks like all they did was spray bedliner on it and left it.

With that much paint on there I am planning to take it down to metal in most spots just to be sure whats underneath. I tried some spray aircraft stripper that isnt doing crap (not sure on brand but its pretty much only cutting top layer or two).

SO basically im using a flap wheel on an angle grinder. seems to be doing pretty good but its killer on the arms after a while. Once i get most of the known problem areas done, I may just end up taking it to be blasted and save myself some time consuming work.

While I agree with jerry in some cases, I think each one is unique. There are people who have recommended aircraft paint stripper in some other posts, maybe buy a can of some different ones and try it out. you really cant go wrong with a flap wheel or some heavy grit sandpaper, just watch your heat cause you can warp the panel just like welding to much.

[quartermilecamel]

I just bought shitloads of easy off at walmart. Thought I would get down to the turkis and bieuweiss on the nose. The easy off did very little. Not sure how long one is supposed to leave it on there but dam I just want to see the og paint, not waste my whole summer scraping. nice to know that aircraft spray stripper sucks too. Thinking Im going to give up on og paint and just rattle can over it.
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Looking for the U shaped swing arm for sliding door split. Left hand drive. Baywindow arms are 1/2 inch longer.

[seecumulus]

Klean-Strip KS-3 Premium STRIPPER removes one to two layers easily. Jell or Spray available.
Not always within 15 minutes per instructions, but up to 30 minutes is not bad - depend on environment temp / humidity. PATIENCE !
Walmart carries.

[quartermilecamel]

Ok then how do you know just exactly when to start scraping or chipping away at it? Im assuming you wash it off when its time to scrape so it doesnt continue to eat the og paint?
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Looking for the U shaped swing arm for sliding door split. Left hand drive. Baywindow arms are 1/2 inch longer.

[TheRealMacGyver]

I am stripping my bus to bare metal right now and I will tell you that I am finding many small rust areas that I would never know existed without stripping it down. Some of the paint I can scrape of with a razorblade scraper and it shaves it off and sounds like a zipper as it rips the paint off. This is on the roof and I think it is because it has been heat-baked. I am also using chemical stripper in the gallon can and brushing it on, waiting at least 30 minutes, then scraping it off as best I can. After it completely dries I am hitting it with a wire wheel and repeating the chemical stripper again, followed by the scraping and wire wheel. At this point I am taking off the remaining finish with a DA using 80 grit. At that point I will am spraying phospho on any remaining rust areas and leave on for 8-12 hours. Once that time has passed I rough up the area by hand sanding with some 80 grit and wipe the area down with a clean cloth and some thinner. Allow it to dry completely (dries quick) and then tape off the area I will spray. I am rattlecanning self-etching primer, then after 15 minutes I use 00 scotch pads to smooth, then hit it with a coat of rattlecan sealer (using Rustoleum gloss white).

I am not sure why you would not want to go down to bare metal, since I have found a multitude of potential problem areas that I didn't have any idea about. These include surface rust areas, pinhole rust areas, and old bondo repair areas that were done half-assed. The other thing I've noticed is that after years of painting some of the body lines lose their fine lines due to heavy paint build-up in areas of corners and edges. I couldn't imagine going through the work of gutting out everything to repair and paint and put it all back together to find problem areas resurface through what I was a layer of paint away from fixing! Maybe I don't know what I am talking about, but it doesn't make sense to me unless you are doing an econo exterior job.
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1977 Transporter 2.0L Automatic Project
1979 Transporter 2.0L Automatic Project
1977 thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=484931