I found when the paint was left in the sun and got hot, it was harder to scrape off. I moved my car back into the garage, and the next day when it was cooler, it came off better. As for getting only the clear off...you have to dig a little sharper and deeper to get under the paint as well as the clear. Be sure to keep using fresh blades. Find a spot and pick down to the primer then hook it with the full blade and off it will come. I found places on my car that were VERY hard to scrape, others where it came off in strips nice and clean. It just takes time and patience.

 

Just keep digging (carefully) until you get down to the factory primer. Once your there you will know what to do.

 

If you find a spot the razor don't work on strippper and the razor works well. My pas. door didn't come off with a razor only. It also helps to have a board or something to wipe the gooey paste off of regularly.

You also don't have to get every nook and cranny spot. You can sand some too, use every method where needed.

 

The 5 minutes I spent the other night where the paint came off way to easy must have been the sweet spot. I went back this evening and it was all I could do from keeping the blade from gouging into the fiberglass. This was on the driver's side front fender behind the wheel.

Guess I will try the hood tomorrow. Just seems like I have now created alot of fill and sand bodywork?

 

Okay. Success!

Here's what I found worked for my 1982 this morning. It has 3 layers of paint. Looks as if originally the car was Charcoal Metallic, then someone painted it Dark Red, and lastly Bright Red with a clear coat.

I used the razor blade method to scrape the clear coat and then my 6" orbital air sander with 100 grit to knock down the 3 layers of paint to the gelcoat.

Probably wasn't having alot of success with the razor blade on the paint due to the build up of layers?

 

NEVER USE A LIQUID-TYPE STRIPPER ON FIBERGLASS. Under a microscope, fiberglass is porus like a sponge. You will never get it out of all the nooks and crannies when you are done, so in 3 years when you get a little bubble that in 5 years grows to a big bubble, you'll kick yourself.

TAKE IT FROM A PAINTER!

No matter what the product labal says, it is NOT meant to be used on anything but metal.

 

You have to understand the razor doesn't scrape the paint off but shatters it. You have to get a technique like rolling your hand on curves and sometime, Keep[ing the same angle. Most of the time going a bit diagonal. The blade is at an angle to the stroke.
If you run into a problem area working from a stripped edge helps. The razor is on the ground working against that raised edge.

If you do gouge too much a lower angle and shorter strokes help your control of it.
I had spots where a 2' stroke X 2" wide shattered right off and just kept going. Curvy stuff maybe an inch or less, picking away at it thing.

I found the corner of the blade liked to dig in and if the wrong angle you got chatter and this did a bit of digging.

 

Sorry, but I've stripped my car completly twice and I just got done stripping and repainting the hood and t-tops. My paint job is 15 years old and I've had zero problems with it and it's lacquer which is problematic in itself. If you follow good procedures and neutralize and wash the surface after you're done you won't have any problems. Fiberglass strippers weren't just invented for corvettes. They are used in boat and aircraft refinishing also. If they were that bad I don't think they would be on the market very long. I see all of you guys attacking a plastic car with a razor blade. Don't you think that's a little more damaging than using a product that was made for the job???????? To each his own but if you gouge your bodywork you'll soon find how difficult it is to repair without problems like swelling and cracking down the road. BTW here's a 15 year old chemically stripped fender.

 

vettfixr, I'm going on vacation this week, but when I return I am going to try the chemical stripping process. Any brand work better than others?

The clear is coming off in long (sometimes 2') long strips but the paint is on like glue! I think the last person that painted the car, must have scuffed the surface and this may be why.

That is one sweet looking close up of your Vette's fender. Caught the angle, reflection, and light just right.

 

OK guys..here is the real deal...I have been in the paint+body shop business for over 20 years, specializing in Corvettes, so I speak from experience. You may use a chemical stripper IF.....

A: You don't have ANY breaks through the top "Gel-coat". Since you have to wash the stripper off, if you do have breaks, water WILL be absorbed into the fiberglass. Now, if you let the water dry out for several days, preferably 10, in low humidity, you may be lucky enough to have no moisture to trap under the primer. If you live in Houston, forget about it drying out.

B: The stripper finds itself trapped in every nook and cranny. You must be meticulus about removing every trace! If not rinsed out, it will remain dormant until re-activated by primer solvent, moisture and/or heat. The question is: How lucky are you? We do use it on piece-parts like headlamp bezels, cowl vents and anything metal....My 25 cents worth....G/L

 

There is no gelcoat on the unfinished side of your body and water isn't absorbed through that side.
Gelcoat is polyester resin thickened with any number of powders, talcum powder is one of them. silica is another, try sanding that!
Fiberglass is strands of glass encapsuled in polyester resin.
Where is the big difference here?

Now if you still believe violating the surface skin of gelcoat is going to absolutly ruin your fiberglass body consider what happens when the gelcoat cracks on a boat. It isn't destroyed. It isn't even destroyed when the crack runs clear through the fiberglass to the other side. This is a vehicle that most definately was exposed to water The funny thing is water isn't absorbed by fiberglass too well. Both the glass on your house and the milk bottle in your frig seem to repel water not absorb it.
But when it becomes a Vette body it becomes a sponge.

There is too much mystique around these fiberglass bodies.

The problem with stripper is if you allow it to strip polyester resin, it will. Your not supposed to do that Similar to sanding through a metal body. You can do it but your not spoda. And its a whole lot more work to chemical strip polyester resin too. If you wanted to do it- it would take forever.

 

The problem is worse on older vettes.(Different composition, not sheet molded compound). Take a trashed panel, break it in half. What you have is a resin and/or gel-coat sandwich. The strands will fly apart without this hard finish. That is where the moisture gets trapped, in between the loose strands. The strands are not fully wetted by the resin, which would give you a very heavy, brittle panel. The underside of your body panels are sealed from moisture by a resin finish during production.

 

If you're working with SMC panels you have no gelcoat. If you are working with pre-62 bodies the fiberglass composition is different and may possibly cause a problem but with care I think you can use it on them too. Hell, I block sanded my fiberglass with 180 grit to get it straight on the sides and I didn't harm anything. I use Capt'n Lee's Spray n Strip exclusively. I've heard of other people using Aircraft stripper but it's not recommended for fiberglass and this is where stripper may have gotten a bad rep. If you use Capt'n Lee's you won't have any problems.As a final step I usually wash the car down with Dawn using scotchbrite pads. If you have stubborn spots that won't come off with a plastic squeegee just flush the surface with water and go over the area with 180 wet or dry keeping the area wet and it'll come right off. Go to my website for the full article on this. Here's a bigger shot of my paint. BTW the car is black lacquer with lacquer clearcoat and that's just the sky reflecting making it look blue. The car next to me is a friend that has his car painted in Chromalusion paint. Quite a site.