Removing aluminum paint from old Airstream

[ole-red]

I haven't even seen this Airstream yet, so I don't know a lot about it, except it has been painted by the owner, who I have known a long time....He used an aluminum paint.....Can this be removed easily ???

Ole-Red

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by ole-red

I haven't even seen this Airstream yet, so I don't know a lot about it, except it has been painted by the owner, who I have known a long time....He used an aluminum paint.....Can this be removed easily ???

Ole-Red

A proper colored paint job on an Airstream mneans that the metal was sanded.

If.........that's the case, NO it never would look correct, should you remove the paint.

Andy

[dwightdi]

The removal will take quite a bit of work and you will have to polish it or clear coat it after that. It is going to be a lot of money or time.

[edglenn]

Yes, it can be removed. I encountered the same problem on mine. The PO had oversprayed the front tongue area (I just thought it was dirty).
I used aircraft stripper (since I was stripping the old clear-coat anyway), and lightly used steel wool to smooth out the rough spots. Some areas will never be pretty.
Then, a LOT of buffing with several stages of buffing compound. Cheap Turtle Wax (NO SILICONE!) rubbing compound worked the best for an abrasive. Then work up in stages to finer compounds.
Takes a LOT of work, and will never be mirror smooth.
But yes, you can get paint off aluminum.