Wow... stripping is not as bad as I thought

[ronstory]

I just got done doing the "hard part" of stripping my 75 Safari... the roof. I kinda mixed the info from Mark at airstreamguy.com and what I could find locally.

I used Kleen Strip KS-3 Premium at $27 at HomeDepot and used a synthetic 3 inch paint brush with a metal paint roller tray. The stripper is *really* thick and I was concerned about sloshing... but no worries. It worked fine.

Once I liberally painted the top of the AS with the stripper... I waited for about 15 mins and then just got the hose out and started to rinse it off the stripper. It forms a milky white film when it mixes with water and about half of it will just wash off.

Once I rinsed the trailer, I got out the truckwashing brush... basically a brush mounted on a telescope handle and just scrubbed everything down to remove the any "clinging" stuff. All of it came off with the brush... the it is nice and clean when you are done.

This only took about 90 minuess to strip the top and scrub it down. I started with the areosal stuff... but it smells terrible, got where I did not want it... plus I needed a respirator. I tried the brush stuff... and it is really easy to control so I didn't have to do the full monty mask-off gig. Just some tape about the sensitive areas like the lights. Works great.

The best part is if you don't complete soak the driveway with water... just let the stripper residue sit overnight to dry out. After it drys... just sweep it up.

So don't be afraid... I fretted about stripping the AS for about two weeks. If you just use the brush stuff, it's fast, easy to control... and works fine.

YMMV... but I got Prius mileage out of my experience.

[ronstory]

Oh... forgot to add that the stuff just washes up with soap and water. The tray looks brand new after I rinsed it... and the brush looks really good, considering it sat for over an hour in stripper. I'll get to use both again to strips the side this week.

[Uberphotos]

I have had the same experience. I just recently (last night) started to strip and polish mine, and I too was surprised at how easy it was.
It took me about 90 minutes to brush on the stripper (I used a different product, but the same idea), and then spray it off with my power washer. I have a couple spots that I am going to have to go over, but boy-oh-boy am I excited to begin the polish!

[ronstory]

Cool. I've removed all the clauking so the next step is to reclauk everything. After my interaction with silicone sealer... and the fact that the 33 year old Vulkem was still adhering well and flexible when I removed it, I gonna reseal with vulkem. Call me a traditionalist.

I thought about using a pressure washer, but even with the hose the white stuff went flying, sometimes a bit farther than I intended. If I get stripper residue on my 80 years old neighbor's roses... I'm a dead man. Not to mention they are great neighbors. They just shake their heads at my antics with the AS. LoL