I'm in the process of stripping the paint off of my Corvette. I've tried using an orbital sander, but the disc gets clogged with melted paint. This is on acylic laquer paint. How can I strip this with out using 100 discs in the process?

I used a product that I bought at Home Depot and Ace Hardware. It is a paint stripper in a gallon can (like paint thinner would come in) and had a gold colored label. Brush it on, wait about 10-15 minutes for the paint to bubble and scrape off with a plastic putty knife (on fiberglass). I think it is made by Kleen-Strip. This stuff worked like magic. There were a few different strippers so you will have to see which one might be compatable and safe for fiberglass. You may need more than 1 gallon, but it was only about $13 /gal. I used 1.5 gals for my chevelle. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Also, I put some old flattened moving boxes down on the floor to catch the melted paint as I scraped it off. Keep moving the boxes around to protect the floor and when you finish the job, pick up the boxes with the dried stuff on them and throw away. Easy.... graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Dont put any old hardware store stripper on fiberglass or you can kiss it goodbye! There are some strippers that claim to be safe on glass,like Captain Lees is one.I would check with someone who knows Vettes for sure before you chemical strip it!

I would have the thing media blasted with plastic media, fast, safe and cheap.

Plastic media is soft enough and used at a low pressures for glass and alumunim

I second the plastic media blasting. Around here, about $400.00. If you do use a striper, BE SURE IT IS FOR FIBERGLASS "regular" old striper WILL damage fiberglass.

after you finish stripping, I hear epoxy primer is the best on top of fiberglass corvettes. I hope the pros will chime in and confirm or refute. My guess is the epoxy bonds well to the fiberglass. On top of the epoxy, I assume one sprays a urethane primer surfacer very soon after spraying the epoxy so it doesn't have to be sanded before the surfacer is laid on. Have I learned anything on this site guys? Love reading the posts.

I have seldom heard that epoxy is the primer for fiberglass. I don't see it, doesn't make a bit of sense to me. Other than the fact that it is a "flexable" primer so maybe it would flex with the fiberglass expanding and contracting better? That is all I can figure. Epoxy is hard to sand (it's like gum) epoxies are great for corrosion protection and adheasion, neather of these is a concern with fiberglass. I know of no reason why anyone would choose to use it on fiberglass.

But all that is a moot point when you are going to apply urethane products over it anyway!

I say urethane primer then paint, done deal. If it needs a bunch of surfacing, polyester primer. Polyester primer is basically a gel coat type coating that is very thick and allows a lot of blocking to prefection.

65elcamino,

I stripped a 69 vette a couple of years ago and used a stripper made for fiberglass, also used cheap plastic putty knifes being carefull not to dig into the fiberglass, the metal knifes wiil cut and scratch the glass before you know it, after it was stripped as much as possible without doing damage I used scotchbrite pads and thinner by hand to remove the the rest. It is not a fast job, take your time. Also the guys at my paint store and the paint rep recommended waiting a month or so for the glass to evaporate the thinners and stripper it was cleaned with before I starte to repair the seams that were coming apart and messed up when I stripped it.

Thanks for the help. I know better than to use the basic paint stripper, that's why I'm just sanding it down. The problem is the discs load up real quick and I hardly get any sanding done wth each disc.