Captain Lee's Spra' Strip, can you leave the primers intact?

[Joe R.]

Re: Captain Lee's Spra' Strip, can you leave the primers intact?

Guys, whatever you do to prepare the surface for painting please start with the raw clean fiberglass that GM put on these cars in St. Louis!!!!!!
IF you don't clean off ALL the top coat and primers you are going to have trouble as ALL the liquid strippers get down into the primer.
You cover that up with your favorite liquid and you will be making a trip to the liquor store the first time your beautiful paint job sees the summer sun!!!
Save yourself a hangover and strip ALL the materials down to but not including the fiberglass gelcoat!!!
Good luck and happy stripping!!!!!!

JR

[Joseph R.]

Re: Captain Lee's Spra' Strip, can you leave the primers intact?

Per one poster's suggestion, I contacted the NCRS paint guru and this is what he said, which is consistent with the previous consensus advice to get to bare fiberglass:
"I have no information on the makeup of the factory primers. There
is no benefit to leaving the factory primer in place. Always clean down
to bare fiberglass before coating with anything as that is your best
surface for complete adhesion. When using Captain Lee's (I highly
recommend it for fiberglass) strip all of the finish and grey primer.
When finishing the grey primer use a 3m red abrasive pad and water and
the red primer will come off clean with a little work and leave a
perfect fiberglass surface. Start at the bottom and work up so you don't
neutralize any more area than necessary at one time. Once scrubbed with
water and a red pad the stripper will be completely neutralized. Allow
to dry completely before proceeding with repairs. Do not use a solvent
wash as the solvents will soak into the fiberglass surface and take a
long time to migrate back out. Solvent penetrating the surface is one of
the main causes of blistering, peeling or lack of adhesion after
topcoats are applied. Often it will take as much as 6 months to 1 yr for
the blisters show up, Usually the first time the finish is exposed to
strong sunlight or heat the solvents will be forced to the surface and
cause adhesion problems.
Tom"

If anyone has left the grey and red oxide primers intact successfully, they haven't weighed in here. Thanks again for the benefit of experience, Joe

[Ronald D.]

Re: Captain Lee's Spra' Strip, can you leave the primers intact?

Like others have said, I used it two years ago on a 1971, that had 3-4 repaints, it took all the paint off like they claim, but did not attack the factory primer