aussiejohn

G'day from down under.
I have a 1974 coupe originally painted brown, OVER which someone has painted a nondescript silvery blue/green colour. I want to remove all the paint and start from the gel coat. Chemical paint strippers here in Australia say "Do not use on plastic." Does anyone know of a chemical paint stripper that is OK on Corvettes? I do not want to go the plastic blast media as it will fill the car with dust that never ends. Thanks.
aussiejohn.

BeachinVette

First of all welcome to the forum :cheers:

What I have seen posted on the forum is use a razor blade to take off the paint a lot of guy's here have done it this way. I will be helping a freind strip his car we are going to start this way. Some others should chime in on the chemical way's also. good luck

Bob

Big Fish

I've been told that chemical strippers may soften the bonded areas made during the construction of the body and should be avoided. Can't say as I've had any experience with them, but I don't think you can beat a little good old fashioned elbow grease and sand paper to remove that paint. I would think you would want to be careful not to sand through the gelcoat.

joeveto

MidAmerica, Ecklers, and the others, offer chemical strippers that work on fiberglass and won't have a bad effect on the glass. I would think a combo of that and the razor should do wonders.

Good luck. What color are you aiming for?

jimvette999

Razor blade???? Why don't we count the grains of sand at the beach while we are at it.

Chemical strippers worked well for me. They will melt your plastic body filler but it will not harm glass or gelcoat. Plan on replacing filler with glass or more filler since it softens it to the point I would not let it remain. Ecklers or paint and body supply stores can sell you stripper made for fiberglass.

Good luck. :seeya

GaryS

I said the same thing about razor blade paint removal when I was looking for paint stripper for my 66. Then, last year, my neighbor and I were talking about repainting his 73 and I mentioned that I had heard, but never used, the razor blade theory. Well, we broke out his box of safety blades and int 6-7 minutes I had the entire rear deck stripped down. :eek: The blades work VERY well on the flat surfaces but do not perform well on the curved areas like fenders and such. Doors, hood, rear deck and fender sides all stripped remarkably easy. We used a fiberglass=safe stripper for all the curvy areas. The best part about razor blade stripping is the clean up. Five minutes with a broom and dust pan and you are finished.
Have you checked with boat supply houses for fiberglass-safe strippers? If not, Cap'N Lees Spray and Strip works OK. It is sold by most of the catalog companies but I wonder if you can have something like that shipped to Ausssie-land.

Btw, my daughter went to Sydney U for all of 2001. She loved it and we loved visiting her there. :cheers:

Gary

Frank75

I used the razor blade technique followed by sanding. It generally worked very fast with easy clean-up as mentioned above. I ended up removing a repaint coat and primer and most of my car is now showing original paint (well scuffed!) and ready for sealing. I did "dig into" the repaint primer in numerous spots, mostly because the top layer of paint was crap (soft and falling off). These all came out as I sanded this primer off anyway.

You may want to check out Lars' paper on this (I think this is the link). It's also in the Tech Forum or whatever it's called at the top.
http://www.bokonon.net/corvettefaq/redir.asp?site=89

NHvette

Brookline, NH - Brookline, ME - we all know to use the razor blade.
I learned this trick from a few of my friends that work in a body shop.
My problem was tricky, too. The clear coat had bubbled up and started
to peel off of the base coat in many areas (OK - the whole car). I bummed
out that I might have to paint the car $$$$. My friend said that I should be
able to strip the clear coat off with a razor - wet sand the base - and
reapply some clear to make it "new". He rushed to show me how and put
a couple nicks in the base of my Ttop, but I finished the top with remarkable
success. A sheet of 1500 later and I was spray bombing it with a can of
clear enamel. It came out great. Well, I never did the rest of the car, since
rust is a greater problem than bubbly clear coat - but the technique worked.

Good luck. I think the body shop uses a nice handle - like the kind that
they use to scrape inspection stickers with. This will give better control.
:seeya

Techno

And yet another razor story.
I did mine, all but the passenger door. It didn't work on that one spot. Used paint remover and razor and even it succumbed. The dry razor either works extremely well or not at all.
There is a technique to using it which you quickly pick up. You can angle it for curved surfaces and it mostly shatters the paint as the method of removal. Like a key job does. Full width of the blade passes or partial width.
This didn't work on my DeVille though. I ended up power sanding it.
Block sanding it with a coarse paper has an advantage too. It gives you practice for the finishing process.

PatsLs1vette

i do all the vettes ive painted with a razor blade,and if you can be easy around the curved areas and not dig in yes you can still use a razor blade,heres a few pictures of a 68 i started to strip with a razor blade.you can see it takes it right to the primer with ease.

aussiejohn

G'day,
Many thanks to 76 Red, Big Fish, joeveto, jimvette999, Gary S, Frank 75, Daves rusty 75, Techno and pats406nitrovette for your speedy response. Obviously the way to go is with the razor on the flat bits and a little stripper on the curvy bits if needed. The cautions I have heard here about strippers is that they can stay in the 'glass and leach out after painting and lift the paint off. The top coat on the car is already lifting off the factory brown paint in parts and the razor should do the job well. I will let you all know how it goes when I start the job.
Once more, many thanks for your information and it certainly proves the worth of this forum.
Regards from Down Under
aussiejohn

vettfixr

G'day aussiejohn

I was where you are quite a while ago. My 74 came from the factory in brown and had quite a few coats of various brown repaints on it. Go to this page on my website for info on chemical stripping and the materials to use. I've read all the posts on stripping with a razor blade but I have to tell you that I'm just not that brave. I've stripped my car twice down to the fiberglass with Capt'n Lee's stripper and have had excellent results. Hope this helps you.
http://users.snip.net/~vettfixr/page9.htm

:seeya

VolVette

Not a single dissenting reply against the razor blade? I usually see a couple in similar threads. I do not have an experienced opinion to offer, but I know Lars recommends sanding.

:cheers: