Hey all,

 

My car has a layer of acrylic paint that has been applied with a bunnings electric spray gun over unprepared original paint. The paint does not hold to the original very well (because it wasnt sanded), so I want to remove it. I don't really wanna take of all paint to bare metal.

 

Can anyone suggest a good method? The paint I'm trying to remove is around 6 months old.

 

Any help and advice appreciated!

 

-Kirill

Could try thinners to begin with, or just sand?

Doing 1 layer might be difficult, there are a few sanding / stripping discs that may work but do the corners / edges by hand else it will sand through.

Could always use chemical stripper or media blast the outside but it would be expensive and time consuming for a whole car.

thanks guys, I'm thinking giving the chemical striper a go but I'm afraid it might burn through to metal. Ill keep yas posted

I used chemical stripper, no harm to the metal at all but was a messy time consuming job!

Stripper will take it all off to the metal.

 

If it's flaking off easy try a plastic scraper/spatula

 

I'd give thinners or even metho and a bit of elbow grease a try but you'll run through a lot of rags if it's laid on thick.

 

If that doesn't work go with sanding. Experiment with the grit but 120 will leave you with scratches and hit the metal on corners, whereas 400 is going to be gentler but a lot of work.

 

 

Stripper will take it all off to the metal.

 

If it's flaking off easy try a plastic scraper/spatula

 

I'd give thinners or even metho and a bit of elbow grease a try but you'll run through a lot of rags if it's laid on thick.

 

If that doesn't work go with sanding. Experiment with the grit but 120 will leave you with scratches and hit the metal on corners, whereas 400 is going to be gentler but a lot of work.

I tried 80 grit wet n dry and it takes a long time to sand through because its layered on with gun thats meant for fences and walls not painting cars hahaha

if you want to sand the new paint off and polish the original paint to save repainting, i would start off with 400 wet until you can see the original paint starting to bleed thru, then goto 800 wet until nearly all the new paint if off, then i would get some dry guide coat, rub it all over the car, and then 1500 wet and dry all the scratches from the 800 out, you will see them in the guide coat when you start sanding, be very careful on the edges, leave them till last, then after all that hard work you should be able to buff the originl paint up nice

don't try thinners as it will kill anything acrylic it touches,

if you wanna repaint it, i would get a orbital sander from a mate, some 180 dry discs and take most of the new paint off, dry guide coat it and then hit it with some 320 discs on the sander until you get rid of all the 180 scratches, dry guide coat again and then hit it with 800 wet until its all nice and scratch free, get some primer to touch up the bits that go thru to metal, and paint it, you shouldn need to primer it.

if you wanna primer it, just hit it with 180 till all the new paint is gone and the original is nice and "dull", then primer, guide coat and hit it with some 800 wet for darker colors or 600 wet for white till all the guide coat is gone. metallic and pearls you should use 800 wet

don't run the sander flat out, it will tend to clog up the paper, i like to go mid speed, and sometimes a finer paper like 120-180 can take paint off quicker that 80!!

krem

If its flaking off could you try blasting it off with a high pressure washer?

 

Random idea, but since I have managed to lift paint with the one at work before, it might work....

An uncle is a spray painter, and he has done the above in the past to remove dodgy clear coats.

If its flaking off could you try blasting it off with a high pressure washer?

 

Random idea, but since I have managed to lift paint with the one at work before, it might work....

But all my beautiful bog will fall out too :(

Bat shit. Works a treat.

I had the same problem with my car. I used a petrol powered water blaster and it got most of it off without really damaging the paint underneath. Just about any other method will damage it