where did you order it from? that's the reason I haven't bought any yet... just a bit hard to find. one place had 2g for $90 shipped.

Seemed a bit high.

I might try some citristrip since I can get a small quart at walmart and see how it does and I like it before buying a bunch of chemical stripper.

 

I got mine from zip. Google it for the best price and they will match it. Yeah its not cheap, good stuff though. Never had a problem with it during the stripping or after the paint job.

 

My car had like 12 coats of paint/primer/clear on it, including the original paint. Capt'n Lees was weak over on it. I went to Kleen Strip (fiberglass safe) stripper and it worked great. Brush it on. Captn lees worked fairly well on the jambs where there weren't as many coats.

Look, stripping a car with stripper is NOT that hard to do ...and doesn't take days of hard work. I had mine stripped in one full day, except the doors which I saved for the next afternoon. Is it hard work? Yes. But do it in a well ventilated area (I can't stress that enough), and spend the extra money for quality neoprene gloves (not cheap latex).

It might take a couple coats of stripper ....have a gasket scraper ready to help work off the thick stuff. On the last coat, have a scuff pad and use it with stripper to rub the final off. Some small, fine, wire brushes work food for the odd angles of the jambs. I'd remove the doors and hood. DO NOT apply stripper to the nose and tail pieces unless you use citri-strip. I ruined my nose piece (it was iffy anyway).

When you're done use water and, again, a scuff pad to THOROUGHLY remove any excess and to properly neutralize the stripper. Let it sit several days to dry and 'breathe'. You can sand whatever excess off that you want, but, personally, I'd even let it sit a couple weeks before applying any primers. Use this time to make a list of part to purchase, frame or suspension work you need to do ...and other phases of your work that you need to do anyway.

 

As for the 'crappy' job the previous painter did, I think you have to put it into perspective.

First, presumably, he painted over an existing, original paint job, which was really popular back then. The paint from the factory was notoriously thin (many customers reportedly refuse to accept cars due to 'thin' paint. So, after 10 years, there wasn't a thick amt of paint left. And, part of it was the prohibitive cost of stripping an entire car, same as today.
Secondly, the original painter was using materials available to him at the time, which appear to be lacquer primer, and maybe lacquer paint. Lacquer is what every shop used way back then, maybe spray enamel paint over the lacquer primer. Well guess what, lacquer is much more brittle than the urethanes used today. Couple that brittleness with the expansion/contraction characteristics of a fiberglass vehicle, an unstable foundation (original lacquer paint) and cracking was the result. Only thing is, it would usually take years to manifest itself -- well after the painter did the car.

My point is, the previous painter most likely followed the popular conventions of the day. It may have been a fantastic paint job, actually. But, any paint job using lacquer or early enamels was destined to last for its servicable lifespan, then eventually begin to fail which exhibits features like cracks and so fourth, just like you see on your car.

I encourage you not to blame past painters. No finish is permenant. You can rest assured that however nice and shiny your paint job turns out when you're done, in 20 years it will be faded, probably cracked in a few places, clear peeling in some spots and so fourth. Another owner is going to be scratching his head contemplating the 'best' method of removing an old urethane paint job to put on something 'really good'.

 

I tried the Capt Lee's stuff once. It works but it had some strong fumes. I had a head ache from he**.

 

That's what I saw from what I was reading as well as it still softened the fiberglass some. So I'll stick with the citris stuff I can get local for now and test out a tiny spot before I commit to expensive Captain Lee's.

Got a roll of 80grit on the way and can pick up some lacquer thinner and some SB pads so I'll hit it with a few different methods and see what sticks(or what doesn't stick actually).

 

Capt lees is 32.95 for a gallon at this website:

http://www.halonmarketing.com/mall/Spra'%20Strip.php

(plus delevery of course)

Depot by my location sells the citristrip for 19.97, 21.00 and change with tax, and thats for only half a gallon. Kind of balances out with shipping the capt lees. Never experienced any softening of the fiberglass personally. Anyway, good luck in however you choose to stripp it.

 

Not to be rude but I just stripped my 70 Vert with razor blades and as far as blocking and sanding that's what is expected if you want a class A paint job.
My .02 cents worth
Good luck with the restoration
Bill

 

Well. Razor bladed the blue layer, Lacquer thinner ate right through the brown/red layer..but seems to just move it around..but didn't put a dent in the original gold.


Bought a can of spray on stripper. Looks like it'll eat through all layers if it's thick enough and left on long enough. Still messy...I'll have to see what I can do tomorrow when i get into it...right now I'm just messing around and seeing what works.

 

I had 5 layers of paint on my car. I used Capt. Lees and it took it right down to th eglass. 2 gallons did the trick. Hosed the car down and let it sit in the sun. Light sanding and it was in primer.

 

I have a question for you guys, The last time I striped a corvette was 30 plus years ago and I don't remember having any big issues, Since then I've removed a wood floor that was glued with mastic. I'm a window tinter and had allot of the plastic backing sheets left over from the tint. I brushed the paint striper on the mastic and covered it with the window film liner. My thoughts where that I helped it work faster since the fumes couldn't evaporate as easy, It kept the fumes down and made clean up easier, I just peeled enough liner as I scraped and wiped it off on the liner itself. I've always wonder if would work or help with striping the paint off of a car. Any thoughts, Not trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

Yes, I have read here on the forum of guys doing that lots of times through the years.

 

Well...turns out that the gray layer under the gold is not the fiberglass lol. Still another thin layer of lacquer under that it looks like.


There's just no way the razor blade method was going to work with this many layers.

Looks like I'll be ordering some Captain Lee's and hope it can cut through a bunch of layers at once. The Citris Strip seems to only cut through 1...maybe 2 at a time. and when there's 6+ that'll take forever.

 

Well...I definitely don't have the proper procedure down yet lol...what a mess.

I think I'm done using Lacquer thinner. It just makes a HUGE mess.

At least the stripper sort of thickens and you can scrape it off and collect most of it. I need to ditch the spray can stripper as it splatters everywhere.




You can see in the first pic at the rear 1/4 panel where the bumper bolts too it seemed to scrap right through to the glass... seemed like it took a layer of glass off with it but maybe it's bondo or something?

 

I was asked by a friend of mine on Facebook if I was making a Rat Rod.

Now that he mentions it... maybe I should weirdly strip the entire car and see what it looks like.

Blue/Gold/Gray/Brown.....

 

My '72 was bought in '95, from a series of two chicks that owned it in succession since new....by time I got it, the car had a totally wonderful Ditzler Radiance paint job on it, Burgundy and it was over ten years old when I bought the car.....

but you know, ten years plus another ten in FLORIDA SUN you know the back deck got hit a lot even in the garage, as the house faces directly west.....back deck developed enough cracks to make Spider Man jealous......I polished, UV'd and all that crap for years and finally due to some careless bastards in the front end....no MY fault....first was a damn DEER at ~40 mph, second was a Verizon truck into my front bumper with the hitch, well, the second one was maybe 5 years ago by now, and no matter what I did, it was not good enough....finally tossed the towel, and went for Forest Green Metallic with black accent stripes to hide my terrible body work....takes a good look to see the terrible body work, because the green paint sux so bad, it looks like a rat rod.....best I can do though....

One of my favorite jokes is that I can't even paint a HOUSE, WTF, WHY I EVER dreamed of painting a CAR?????


Let me near a can of paint, and I can blow up the world.....

 

I will be tackling this same project on my '76 at some point in the future, looks like fun, and a learning experience all at the same time....

 

zip-strip works good,you need to brush it on 2 coats,then cover with plastic sheeting,only do a 3'x3' section at a time,leave the plastic sheet on for 1 hr,you should be able to use a putty knife/scrapper just take off the old paint,,take off all the body trim/lights/bumpers/plastic,the stripper will eat into them [wrecking them]

 

I tossed the idea around in OT and after hearing it was a pretty bad idea to drive the car with bare fiberglass I decided against going straight to bare.

I want to drive this car some this summer while I get the interior and a few other things fixed on it.

So I'm going to strip the top layer or so now, bare glass in areas that need repair. and the rest will look like this hippy mobile for a while.

 

I was in the same boat a while back. I had three paint jobs on my car counting the original. Not being a 'carpenter' but rather a 'car painter' I had the foresight to know all permanent things are built from a 'good foundation'.

I stripped it down with a DA orbital, 80 grit, 120 grit and even had my wife sanding the tailight openings for me. A new way to spend a Friday night. It was all worth it. Very labour intensive but very controlled.

I considered 'bead' or 'soda' blasting but the cleanup turned me off. I have had 20 years experience with paint strippers, and yes they work but the residual mess at times may not be worth it.

Face the challenge by 'one' panel at a time and don't get defeated. It does not take long to have two doors, two t-tops, one hood and two bumper covers stripped, hey by that time you are 40% done !

P.S. strip off everything before sanding, i.e. trim, covers, mouldings, etc. An 'orbital' can really tear up some nice expensive trim.