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

[Joseph R.]

Hello all, reading the recent thread on C2 paint prep, the consensus seems to be that Captain Lee's Spra' Strip from Halon Marketing is a known safe option for those who prefer not to strip paint with media blasting. Question is, once you start with Captain Lee's to remove the color coats on the exterior of the car, can you stop when you get to the grey or red oxide primer coats and successfully neutralize the stripper, or must you go all the way to bare fiberglass. What I gather from other posts is that the grey and red oxide primer coats on a C2 are tougher than the top coats, but not really equivalent to a modern gel-coat, and the factory primers for C2 may be laquer based. I would like to leave the original primers intact when I strip the topcoats from my 64, but I am concerned the Captain Lee's will have chemically attacked them or soaked into them, even if the color coats separate easily from the grey primer. Is it necessary to go all the way to bare fiberglass when chemically stripping a corvette? Thanks, Joe

[Jim T.]

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

Joseph from what I can remember from stripping the original color coats from my 68 an 70 Corvettes in the 80's with Captain Lee's stripper the primer was still pretty much left on my Corvettes. I wet sanded the primer off with a non aggressive light sand paper. Need to find my Dupont paint book for more information. Dupont Lacquer was available then

[Mike T.]

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

Joe - We used Captain Lee's stripper on my 65 Coupe back in the mid 80's and at the time, it had some seriously heavy coats of owner-applied paint and primer. The Captain Lee stuff removed all of that but didn't have much effect on the factory primer.

[Duke W.]

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

I used a "lacquer stripper" on my SWC. It would not touch the red primer. I ended up sanding it off, but if it's sound including the underlying substrate, I don't think it needs to be removed other than in areas that have had body repair. If a similar primer was applied over a field body repair it would be a good idea to remove the primer to inspect and verify that the repair is sound.

The red primer is definitely NOT lacquer based.

The gray primer is probably lacquer based. One reason to spray a thin coat gray lacquer-based primer over the red primer is to check for proper body contour. You block-sand the gray primer, which will reveal any low or high spots.

Duke

[Alan S.]

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

Hi Joe,
I agree that the Capt. Lee's leaves the original St.Louis primer coats in tact.
In fact after the Capt. Lee's has removed the body color paint it's still a LOT of work to get bare fiberglass if one wants to do that.
This is the original red coming off my 71, and you can see the primer remains.I'm taking the paint off in sections which helps control the mess and also the length of time the stripper is on the paint.
I used lacquer thinner and Scotch pads to remove the primer.
The body was repainted with acrylic lacquer.
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

[Bill W.]

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

Joseph . Even though the stripper does not remove the primer it softens it . I always remove the primer with lacquer thinner and a red scotch bright pad . You need to remove all the old material from the fiberglass by using thinner and wet sanding . Bill

[Donald H.]

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

I am stripping my 66 with Captain Lees. My car has at least three layers of paint and primer. The stripper does get it down to the red oxide primer and that is where I am stopping. I'm having my car painted and the painter will end up sanding the red oxide primer off and down to bare glass.

Don

[Curtis M.]

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

Joseph,

Unless you can get a definitive answer to your question knowing the labor and material costs associated with a re-paint, is it worth the risk that the original primer may fail? I stripped my '64 with Captain Lee's and found the same issue with the factory primer. I think some of the primer came off during that process, maybe it was just coincidental. I used the scotch brite pads and lacquer thinner, or it might have been acetone, to take it down to bare fiberglass. It's a lot of work, but at least I knew what I was starting with and controlled each layer that went on top of it.

Curtis

[Gary C.]

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

Joseph,

Capt Lee's stripper needs to totally evaporate out of the body. Otherwise you could get some paint lift. On the advice of another member who had used Capt Lee's many times, I let my body set outside in the sun for a month before doing anything else. After almost 20 years, there's no paint lift.

JMTCW,

Gary
....

[Jimmy B.]

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

many years ago I shot this on an early hardtop, got some on the acrylic rear window, it was bad and marred it so be careful if you use it there.

[Doug L.]

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

I doubt that you would apply new base coat - clear coat over old lacquer paint but you would consider applying it over some unknown type of primer??? Especially primer that has had stripper on it? I think you are asking for trouble and if your painter knows anything about painting cars he should be warning you. Just my opinion. If my memory is correct my painter used a primer that was specific to the paint he applied. Depending on what condition the glass is in you could spend between 10 and 20K on a good paint job. Who would want to have to do it over? Doug

[Joseph R.]

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

Thanks to all for the benefit of your experiences. To sum up, the grey primer is probably a laquer-based sealer, the red-oxide base primer is some other chemistry. It would be good to know for sure what the chemistry of both red oxide and grey primer layers are to decide how to proceed with modern sealer and topcoat if those primers appeared intact after chemical stripping. Bill's point is well taken that even though what remains might appear to be intact, it may be chemically softened or changed by the stripper. That is the root of my original post. Doug's makes a good point too, but if both factiory primer layers can be left in place after chemical stripping, as a sound base for a new paint job using modern sanding sealers and paints, that seems the preferred approach. Has anyone ever done that - say, stripped only to grey primer with Captain Lee's and then started repaint process up from there with good results? I would like to avoid "opening up" the fiberglass layer mechanically or otherwise (such as with acetone or other solvents to get the red-oxide off) as the body may sit for a long time before I actually repaint it. Thanks again, Joe

[Duke W.]

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

I suggest you spend some time trying to contact a paint engineer/chemist from PPG or other major automotive paint supplier. They are more likely to give you a definitive answer based on science.

Duke

[Gene M.]

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

A good lacquer thinner will soften both the gray and red oxide primers on a Corvette. For this reason the stripper will be in the primers and WILL STAY THERE if not removed. Your car, do what you want but I did remove to the bare fiberglass on everything in my garage. Also you need to rinse and rinse and rinse to remove all minute residue of stripper no matter what brand you use.

[Timothy B.]

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

A good lacquer thinner will soften both the gray and red oxide primers on a Corvette. For this reason the stripper will be in the primers and WILL STAY THERE if not removed. Your car, do what you want but I did remove to the bare fiberglass on everything in my garage. Also you need to rinse and rinse and rinse to remove all minute residue of stripper no matter what brand you use.

That's why it's always best to do a small area and wipe clean with lacquer before moving on. IMO you will probably want to remove most of the factory primers and prime first coat with epoxy primer then sandable primer then seal before the first top coat.

I always used Ditzler DP-40 epoxy primer and it can also be used as a sealer when thinned with lacquer thinner per the can, the stuff lays down as flat a paper.