Paint-stripper recommendation?

[JonE]

I've just used a sharp serrated fruit knife for getting old paint off aluminium, and also a block of aluminium with a finely honed 90 degree edge, sharpened regularly. Worked marvellously well but you need to press hard to get the stuff moving. The patch I did with the grinder was a mess in comparison.

[Ivor Hawkins]

I’m a big fan of soda blasting, I had my entire Sunbeam Alpine bodyshell soda blasted and the result was absolutely superb. I treated the whole thing with Bilt Hamber to halt any corrosion and sprayed with two pack epoxy primer.

[Chris KC]

Both valid points Dave - I have very understanding neighbours! There's always manual wet sanding I guess but that could be a long job.

Peter, at the risk of asking a daft question, do you really need to strip it back to metal? For repairs, no doubt so. For merely re-painting not necessarily...?

[David.H]

A hot air gun can do good stuff as well, particularlyon "bondo" as I found on a car that had much work "done" in USA

[Peter Naulls]

Thank you all for the replies, on and offline. It is a steel (Ruby) bonnet I've acquired which definitely needs to be stripped as it has many layers of cellulose, some brushed on(!) and some covering minor rust pitting. I wouldn't want to spend any time painting it without knowing it was clean to start with. Well worth the effort though as it is absolutely straight and undamaged.

I'm going to opt for soda blasting but first I'll remove the bulk of it. I'll try scraping with a chisel or similar to see how I get on, failing that I'll try one of the recommended strippers.

The bonnet I'm replacing was cobbled together from rough parts as a temporary measure 35 years ago when the Ruby was restored - it has taken that long to get around to sorting out!

Peter.

[andrew34ruby]

I have just stripped my Ruby bonnet of much paint, and other panels too. On a lot of paint I find a wire twist cup brush in a grinder works best. On some paint a flap disc works best but easily scores the steel.

Thinking about it, I have done the whole car like this now, body, doors, mudguards, everything. Much of it was then blasted, some didn't need blasting. Most is now in gloss black, I'll be priming the doors today.

[Peter Naulls]

Thank you Andrew, glad to hear you are making good progress.

An hour with a wood chisel removed almost all the paint from the first panel. Actually quite a pleasant job on a day like today!

   

[Chris KC]

I can hear my woodwork master turning in his grave...

[Peter Naulls]

Yes indeed! Rest assured it's not the same chisel I use for woodwork

Peter.