fiberglass6





	PART SIX - Paint Stripping Now for the awful bit! Having decided the course of action for the repaint you have a choice of methods of preparation depending upon circumstances. 4. The lazy one first - on self-coloured gel coat cars, namely kit cars or bolt on wings/panels etc., if any repairs have to be done, do as outlined earlier. Then flat off the whole panel/car with 360 wet and dry (wet with a little washing up liquid in it) to provide the key. Dry thoroughly and it is ready for the painting process. 5. If the original paint is sound or you elect not to strip it all off, repair the cracks/damage/marks etc. first, then remove everything from the car that can be removed i.e. door frames, glass lights , the lot, and flat off the entire car with 360, paying particular attention to the repair/paint boundaries. These areas must be absolutely perfect. Use lots of water and change the paper regularly. If the carpets and seats are still left in cover them up well because wet coloured stains are quite difficult to remove when the crud had dried! Finally, when all has been flatted, wash with clean warm water and dry thoroughly. 6. Stripping a whole car will take a very very long time whichever method you choose. People just do not realise the hundreds of hours it takes. Unlike metal where you can apply paint stripper everywhere and high pressure hose it off, paint stripper attacks GRP so extra care has to be taken. If using the paint stripper method buy water soluble stripper only. Do NOT buy the special GRP ones that are intended for marine purposes only. They do not remove cellulose/acrylics. If you are stripping an original finish take it off BY HAND> DO NOT use paint stripper because if you do one pass of the scraper and you'll be through. Start with 80 grade wet and dry finishing with 220 and 360. Before staring with paint stripper first dewax the car with petrol or solvent but be sure to eliminate all risk of fire. Wipe clean and then key the surface with 80 grade paper to provide a grip for the stripper otherwise the first applications will remove only the remaining wax polish! Work on a small area at a time and scrape the paint down to the original primer coat only. Always leave doors, boot lid etc attached to the car because it is easier to work on these when they are anchored in position. When you have finished with the stripper take off the door handles, frames, glass, lights etc and finish around these points by hand with wet and dry paper. Taking everything off first may seem logical but you do not want stripper all inside the car eating into vinyl seats etc and the build up of stripper in and around the door handle holes etc will give horrible paint problems later on. After each small patch has been done thoroughly wash off with water to neutralise the stripper. Go over the whole car, leaving any old repairs - do not paint strip them out. when the car is, hopefully, in its original primer, flat off by hand with wet 220 grade wet and dry. Next wash the entire car and then TACKLE THE REPAIRS both old and new (gel cracks show up as dark yellow lines). Finally flat off again totally with wet 360 grade wet and dry and the car should be ready for painting. 7. Chipping off the paint using chisels is an alternative to paint stripper. This can sometimes prove to be quicker provided the paint comes off easily. You will find this method is best when the car has many layers of paint. Use a wide chisel or smaller sizes for the fiddly bits. Do not gouge into the GRP. If you do scrape too far and remove the gel coat treat the area as a gel crack for repair. this applies also to gougers made when using paint stripper 8. Another method of stripping is by hand sanding. This will really take for ever, especially if you have to take off six repaints; to use an electric orbital sander or equivalent is a waste of time. NEVER be tempted to use a grinderette or a cintride disc as these will tear through the paint and straight into the GRP. By far the quickest method is to use a compressed air orbital sander with 40 grade paper and working down to 220 grade, the flexible backing pad will allow awkward corners and curves to be reached. Be careful when nearing the initial primer coat. Stop and take this off by hand otherwise, after painting, you'll wonder why the beautiful gloss coat has a myriad of squiggles all over it. Elite being stripped For the bare body spray with ICI (or Glasurit) spray filler. This is designed to take out 80 grade marks and is self etching. I never use Lessanol as I believe it can cause problems later on. DO NOT use spray fillers over painted surfaces but only over repairs. After the spray filler use high build primers then your colour. Or, if the body is perfect use a two pack primer (which should prevent sinkage) and then your colour whether cellulose or two pack scheme. On a final note, it usually takes about 250 hours to strip and paintspray a Lotus Elan +2. If you have done it yourself you have probably found that it has taken hours more. Painting and polishing alone in a cellulose scheme will account for around 70 - 80 hours of that time.

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