stripping the grey painted bottom

[ALANSD]

I am getting cloe to repainting the grey bottom area....have any of you stripped this with aircraft stripper or ? Some of it is plastic at the bumpers, but the rest is painted aluminum. The doors to the storage boxes included. I would love to leave it clear aluminum, but repainting will probably work out better.

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by ALANSD

I am getting cloe to repainting the grey bottom area....have any of you stripped this with aircraft stripper or ? Some of it is plastic at the bumpers, but the rest is painted aluminum. The doors to the storage boxes included. I would love to leave it clear aluminum, but repainting will probably work out better.

Alan, I used a waterbase stripper to remove the paint from the plastic parts. Any other stripper will eat the plastic in no time. Any paint store or Home Depot carries the waterbase stripper.
Dont' leave it on too long, have a waterhose close by to rinse it off. Then I used a lacquer automotive primer, which after several coats and sanding between coats left me with a good surface for the finish coats.
Any stripper will work for the aluminum parts. If u decide to leave it aluminum, be prepared to find some rough spots that will require sanding before proceeding with the polishing steps.

[59toaster]

I picked up som estriper at West Marine on US41 (same shopping center as Scalini's) that is for use on fiberglass to use on the inside fiberglass end caps. It's probaly just a water base striper as Peter was recomending but you might hit their website and see what they have. The couple times I have been there the folks were knowledgable on the products they had on the shelf.

[ALANSD]

thanks guys. i will try the water based stripper on the aluminum and plastic areas. If the aluminum comes out ok I might go ahead and polish it out and forget the grey paint. I love that look. The Ii can just redo the spare tire cover and end parts in grey.

[ALANSD]

well I bought the Klean Strip premium spray on for the aluminum lower. Got some good gloves, and will jump on it soon. I will post photos of the progress. Also found some nice glossy grey paint in case the stripping idea doesn't work out.

[ALANSD]

well it seems to be going quite well. After 90 min or less I have 3 panel areas almost done. Its way too hot (92) to do a lot more today, but i will get a lot accomplished for the first wack at it. Here are the before, and during shots.

[ALANSD]

One side mostly done, now I will polish it out some, and seal with the same stuff I used on the upper areas. Then on to the driver's side. A rewarding project thus far.