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Paint removers

To: triumphs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Paint removers
From: mmcewen@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca (John McEwen)
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 14:27:54 -0500
Hello fellow listers:

I have been following the painting thread and have an observation and a
question.

My observation is that there should be a very good reason to strip a car to
bare metal.  If the original paint is adhering well and/or any repaints
also have a good hold, it is probably not worth the effort and may be
counterproductive.

Factory paint usually has a tenacious hold and unless it is crazed or
cracked through the primer coat should be left alone.  The extensive use of
paint strippers presents all sorts of possibilities for future headaches.
Stripper can become lodged in crevices and can creep into places where it
shouldn't go.  It may prove impossible to remove it, or even realize it is
there.  Following a paint job it may demonstrate its presence in a
disastrous manner.

Having said all of that, I am in the position of having to strip my Lagonda
as the original paint is covered by several coats of deteriorating repaints
and God knows what.  The catch is that the body is aluminum but with some
steel sections.  Does anyone have experience with a stripper for this kind
of task?

It is not practical to separate the two different metals.  For example, the
door skins are aluminum, the door frames are steel, the door interiors are
wood and the upper window frames are chrome plated brass.  The scuttle is
steel with aluminum parts, the A pillars are steel meeting aluminum and the
B pillar is cast aluminum with a steel outer strip.  The whole damn car is
one big battery.

John



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