stripping powder coat

[bicycletricycle]

i have stripped plenty of paint but not a lot of powder coat. any advice on what kind of paint stripper to use?

[ultraman6970]

In the autoparts and maybe in home depot you will find one that is called something like aereal or plane paint remover, that thing is good.

Second option, go to a car paint supplies store, thet sell really good stuff in those places. Once you are done with the stripping if you can get the frame sandblasted.

[buldogge]

Aircraft Stripper (HD, Lowe's, Autozone, PepBoys, etc.)...sometimes plastic scrub brushes/scotchbrite needed...usually, follow with hose/sprayer and the PC will pop right off.

-Mark in St. Louis

[carpediemracing]

Eastwood sells something specific for powder coat stripping.

[David Kirk]

do not get that stuff on your skin - yow!

dave

[ultraman6970]

+1 in what kirk says, use leather gloves or really thick rubber globes.

[yngpunk]

+1 in what kirk says, use leather gloves or really thick rubber globes.

Leather isn't going to offer you much protection since the paint stripper will either eat into the material or soak into the leather.

Best bet is to get a pair of nitrile gloves which are designed for handling chemicals

[Craig Ryan]

I haven't done any frames that have been powder coated, but I assume they are similar to wet paint for stripping. For wet paint, this is what I do. I use Aircraft Stripper, it's made by Klean-Strip. It's about $40/gl. Paint stripping is easy, just not fun. It's really hard not to get any exposure to the chemical, so be careful and work in sessions. I wear long sleeves and pants, and cover my face with a shield, or googles. If it hits your skin you can tell, it's kind of like hot sauce in your eye. Using good rubber gloves I lay down the stripper in an appropriate area with good ventilation, I use my paint booth, but likely you don't have a good place to do it, so work outdoors on top of newspaper. This is not an indoor operation unless it was in the garage with the doors all open. Pour it in a cup, and apply it with a 1" brush onto all the easy to reach areas, then walk away and wash up. If you are using rubber gloves from the grocery store they are probably about shot by now anyway. So take them off and make sure you don't have any exposure. After a while, like a half hour or so, come back with some fresh gloves and flip the frame over and do the other side. The paint should be falling off in chunks by now, but still, just let it work. At some point you have to go in with a scraper and wire brush, but if it's not coming off easy, it needs more time and chemical. Once it's cleaned off, it's time to hit it again because no matter what, there will be small areas that need more attention. After this session, I usually rinse it with a hose and wire brush it as I do this. The water neutralizes the stripper, so I just take it out on the lawn, but your lawn may be nicer than mine, so you decide. With plenty of water the grass doesn't seem to notice. The frame should be pretty clean by now, but not clean enough to paint. You could spend a bunch of time with steel wool etc., but I use a media blaster for the rest of it. There is probably somebody close to you who can do this for you, but make sure they know how delicate a frame is. I hope this helps with your particular problem, if not, maybe some other folks out there will find it useful.
Craig

[bookit]

sandblast the crap out of it

[buldogge]

Not a good idea, especially if it is lightweight steel of any kind.

-Mark in St. Louis

sandblast the crap out of it

[martinrjensen]

Media blasting should be OK. If they actually use sand then you would want them to really know what they were doing so they didn't blow a hole in the frame.
Not a good idea, especially if it is lightweight steel of any kind.

-Mark in St. Louis

[ultraman6970]

Before sandblast the paint needs to be stripped using chemicals anyways or the process will take ages using just sandblasting. My friend has a sandblasting machine in his shop and I use that just to refinish the left overs of paint, specially in the areas hard to reach.

[Toddtwenty2]

I can also suggest the aircraft paint stripper. Spray it on and let it sit for about 1 minute. The paint will bubble up and you can wipe it off with a rag. I kept a bucket of water nearby as well. I wore heavy rubber gloves and they worked well. I did get some overspray on my legs due to wearing shorts, however, and it's painful. Wear old, skin-covering clothing.

[buldogge]

Sure...soda, walnut, plastic, even garnet maybe...but...pressure control will be very important...I'd rather use chemicals, maybe finish with something lightweight.

-Mark

Media blasting should be OK. If they actually use sand then you would want them to really know what they were doing so they didn't blow a hole in the frame.