T.J. Higgins wrote: "Any other ideas for quick, easy and effective
paint removal are most welcome." This was eight days ago and there's
been a noticable lack of response.
Well, T.J., the fact is that there is no such animal. Quick, easy and
effective are mutually exclusive terms when it comes to paint removal.
Plastic Media Blasting (the preferred term, as they aren't really
beads, more like shards. Sharp edges cut better.) is about $400
in the northeast. That's not as pricy as it may sound. All the paint
goes away but unlike chemical strippers, the bondo is not compromised.
The glass is not etched and delicate parts are largely uneffected.
It does not, however remove rust or undercoat. All of this is
accomplished without the generation of friction (heat).Many of the
people doing this kind of work will come to your home, set up a tent
around your car and clean up all the media and old paint, leaving you
with a paint free car and no mess to clean up. This is not, however an
advertisement for PMB. Read on.
Regular sand blasting can be used to strip paint. It will also remove
rust (not that lbc's ever need to have rust removed.) The danger here
is that Sand blasting, to be really effective needs to be done at high
pressure. This creates heat. Heat warps all that high quality British
steel. Utmost care must be exercised in the use of high pressure sand
blasting. Great huge piles of sand accumulate everywhereboth in and out of the
car. Sand that will continue to sift out years after you've reassembled
the car. But all this is not bad. It's very effective, reasonably cheap,
and fast. If you have the equipment it's even cheaper. If you have it done
by a pro, he has to clean up the mess. Just be careful. In doing this
yourself or in chosing someone to do it for you.
Chemical stripping is still the easiest method for the home garage.
It's incredibly messy, the fumes are dangerous and the waste product
is nearly impossible to get rid of in some communities. It will compromise
any body filler under the paint so all of that will have to be removed and
replaced, even if it was done right by the previous owner. (Incidentally,
don't scoff at "bondo". Even Rolls Royce uses it to correct minor imperfections
Done right it's really outstanding stuff. It's just that most ameteurs glop
it on half an inch thick.)The best one I've found is called TREMCO. It's
a "dry strip" formula. Meaning that you let it dry before removing the
softened paint. This makes cleanup safer and easier. This stuff went
through three layers (i.e. three different colors) on the race car with
one application! I also used it on the Datsun 240Z that I own. That car
was stripped to the bare metal with only two gallons of TREMCO at about
$25 per gal. So it's pretty cheap, but its not easy work. Expect to spend ;
two or more days stripping an lbc.
So there's the treatise on paint removal. Whatever you use, be sure the
metal is properly prepped before painting or all of this effort will be
wasted. But thats a subject for another time.
If anybody else has any ideas I'd like to hear them too! (I've got
the TR3A in line for a repaint this winter.)
---
Rik Schlierer
VTR Chapter Coordinator - East (rgs03@albnydh2.bitnet)
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