[goatman55]

I didn't even know you could get nitrocellulose lacquer anymore.

I painted my car with acrylic lacquer in the early 90's. It never checked, but it wouldn't stay shiny anymore and I had buffed the paint really thin in a bunch of spots. I also used lacquer based surfacer-primer, which I also wanted to remove because of how much it shrinks. Everything was on top of dp40 epoxy primer.

I tried wet sanding with 180 grit paper, but it was way too slow so I ended up using 80 grit on a DA until I could see the epoxy. I block sanded the rest off with finer grit, sealed with epoxy, and started over with catalyzed material. Most of the bodywork was salvaged, but it would have been about as easy to completely strip the whole thing.



Don't use chemical stripper over plastic filler that you want to keep. You have no way of telling how far it soaked into it.

The car turned out great, but it was alot more work than I figured.

Dave

[400 4spd.]

Originally Posted by goatman55

Don't use chemical stripper over plastic filler that you want to keep. You have no way of telling how far it soaked into it.

Dave

That is accurate and extremely important. Anywhere that chemical stripper contacts needs to be taken down to bare steel, regardless of how many layers of material the stripper lifted. Doing anything less is risking completely re-doing it again.

[Greg Reid]

Well, you probably won't believe this but a single edged razor is a great way to strip about 70% of it. In my experience, it will go exactly to the primer and filler and no deeper. The bonus is that you only have a lot of curled up strips of paint to dispose of instead of all that dust.
It won't work on some oddly shaped or tightly curved surfaces but on the majority of the car....hood, trunk, roof, sides...it will work like a charm.
Try it, you'll be surprised...
Edit- Found this guy using a 4" wide blade. Even faster..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR9faQRZEqg

[gtome]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Well, you probably won't believe this but a single edged razor is a great way to strip about 70% of it. In my experience, it will go exactly to the primer and filler and no deeper. The bonus is that you only have a lot of curled up strips of paint to dispose of instead of all that dust.
It won't work on some oddly shaped or tightly curved surfaces but on the majority of the car....hood, trunk, roof, sides...it will work like a charm.
Try it, you'll be surprised...
Edit- Found this guy using a 4" wide blade. Even faster..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR9faQRZEqg

This does work well. I did a huge limo with one once. I could just walk down the long sides, taking huge amounts off at a time. I did have some spots that had to be "chisled" away though. I also did a car once with one of those knerled wire wheels on a grinder. That worked pretty well to!