advice on stripping paint

[Craig D.]

OK here goes.......I have a 1973 coupe I bought locally from orig owner. It has one pretty old lacquer repaint over the original factory orange paint. It's wrong color currently. Question is , is there an available paint remover that will really effectively work stripping old lacquer paint ?
I don't mind doing the labor, I have done this before, but even years ago, the lacquer paint was the most stubborn part of the chemical stripping process, enamels crinkle up easily and squegee right off.
I was thinking about plastic media blasting from a close by company , but after seeing my brother in law's '80 after it was done, I am now afraid to have them do it, it came out pretty rough in a lot of areas.
I would appreciate any input. Thanks, Craig

[Ken B.]

Re: advice on stripping paint

Craig...I did the paint stripping on my 75. It took awhile but i think in the long run it was worth it.I used spra-strip and it worked great..HAPPY STRIPPING
Ken

[Dennis A.]

Re: advice on stripping paint

I'm with Ken....spra- Strip will get the paint off and leave the body in excellent sharp for repainting...DO NOT blast with with plastic media....Soda blasting by someone that has done fiberglass bodies will work when more than three or four coats of paint have to be removed.

[Chuck S.]

Re: advice on stripping paint

I concur with the advice...chemical stripping is the way to go.

BE ADVISED: You will find that the lacquer and the factory sealer coat will strip relatively easily...this assumes the repaint was a "scuff and spray" and not a full strip down to the fiberglass. Once you get down to the red oxide factory primer, however, your progress will dive into the dirt, and that's a good thing...you want to sand the factory primer off rather than strip it.

Once you get down to the red oxide primer, clean the stripper and paint remnants off the area by wiping with lacquer thinner, then wash the area thoroughly with soap and water to neutralize the stripper. Then wet sand the factory primer to bare fiberglass using 240-280 grit wet/dry paper.

You'll want to strip no more than about 3-4 square feet at a time, and you will want to strip and sand all the way down to the fiberglass and clean it before moving on. The reasons for this are: (1) Stripping the factory primer will require copious quantities of stripper and long waiting times...this increases the chances of the stripper absorbing into the fiberglass and causing you paint problems later, and (2) sanding off the primer allows you to keep stripper away from your fiberglass as much as possible.

One other recommendation...don't strip the car until you are definitely ready to take it to the paint shop. Stripping a car is a lot of work that has to be done sometime in a restoration, but in my experience, it's better to do it at the last possible moment before paint. The existing paint, as ugly as it is, provides protection to the raw fiberglass from oil and grease stains (it's probably in a garage), body oils in handling, dust and dirt, ultraviolet light, etc. If a restoration drags out, and you have a bare fiberglass body setting around for years, you'll have to give it a good resanding just to remove all the body oil, fingerprints, and embedded dirt before it can be painted.

[Craig D.]

Re: advice on stripping paint

Ok guys ,thanks for this info.Nice details Chuck, I will follow the steps. I will go with the stripper. Is the spra-strip brand the one I see at Carlisle every season ? He has a booth and is usually stripping off a corvette or a piece of fiberglass. It is sprayed out of a spray bottle correct? Either way I will track it down and get started when I get it in the garage....