AZ76

Today I finally kicked off the project of starting to strip off the old paint in preparation of maybe finally actually painting this thing some day. I started with razor blades and the paint came off very easily down to the grey layer you see in the pictures. As you can see with the current crazy *** paint job the paint seemed pretty thick to me and razor was taking it off no problem. I was unable to take the grey layer off with a razor so I used a tiny amount of Citristrip to see if I could get down to bare fiberglass. This wiped away the grey layer no problem, but didn't touch the beige layer below that. It seems to me the beige layer is right above the fiberglass as you can see in the 3rd picture I used my razor at a little nick in the body and pulled up a small piece that had strands of fiberglass in it. Obviously I don't want to be doing that all over the place so my question is: Should I do what I did using the razors down to the grey and then chemically stripping that grey layer away, and then possibly sand away the beige? Or do I use the beige layer as my starting point and not strip down to bare fiberglass? Just getting opinions as I'm pretty new to this process.

Thanks



Starting point


Razor down to grey layer, Citristrip down to the beige


Close up of the fiberglass I nicked with the razor.

DUB

You want to get down to the bare fiberglass.

You and drag you razor blade tool instead of pushing it. You have to make sure that you follow the contours so the ends of the blade do not cut into the body. And for what it is worth...I have been doing this for years and years and sometimes I get a nick or two due to not being able to see what is under what I am trying to strip with a razor blade. It has EVERYTHING to do with angle and pressure of the tool. Once you find that "sweet spot" I can strip a paint job like a mad man. Burnishing the blade is very important. To burnish it...install a razor blade in your tool and then drag it backwards against your pant leg several times at a 45 degree angle or so....and that is it. Or put a towel on something flat and drag it backwards across it.

Try this. Apply your stripper...you can either use a plastic "bondo" spreader to scrape off the stripper and also some of what it softened. THEN...after you scraped it off...take rough steel wool and lacquer thinner and scrub the area that you applied the stripper to...as long as you can tell it is softening the beige primer. That beige primer is more than likely a 2K primer which will be fun to get off but will come off. And DO NOT worry about using steel wool because it will not damage the body. You can also use red sctochbrite...but I prefer to use really rough steel wool.

The when you have scrubbed the area...wipe it off with a damp paper towel with lacquer thinner and then dry and see if you are down to the body. Make sure that when you are done in an area...wipe the panel down again with a CLEAN paper towel and lacquer thinner and dry off with a CLEAN paper towel.

The worst area are going to be tight spots...this is where I often sometimes media blast them totally clean after several attempts of stripper and steel wool.

Try not to apply stripper to an area that you have down to bare glass...and if you are getting into bad body work and teh body is starting to get "fuzzy" with strands...clean it with thinner and it can be addressed at a later time.

DUB

bwinterstine

Anyone have a video of the razor blade process? I have not found the "sweet spot" yet and getting through multiple layors of paint on my 75 seems tough. Here is a picture of the layers I have t deal with ... I think I'll wind up stoping at the gray primer (or sealer) above which seems to be the bottom layer???

Not trying to hijack AZ76's thread but I thought a good video might be worth a 1000 words.

DUB

Often times using the razor blade method will allow you to get some of the layers. But not all of them. You can warm/heat the panel up with a heat gun to get some more off...which I have found works well when the paint is thick or has multiple layers. Sometimes the "stuff" will not come off with a razor blade WITHOUT creating serious damage to the body. That is when an alternate method of paint removal is needed.

Using the folding type razor blade inspection sticker knife works really well due to giving you a good sturdy tool that can take the abuse.

DUB