Hey,

I recently aquired a shark wing with the most horrible paint job I have ever seen. It looks like it was done with a roller & tray! I need to strip it down and give it a decent coat of paint. The paint is so soft it just clogs up sandpaper, so I'm leaning toward a chemical solution. My main questions are:

Has anyone ever tried using chemicals like oven cleaner, brake fluid, etc for stripping paint?
What is the spoiler made of? (Polystyrene?, ABS?)
Is there a better way to go about removing the old paint?

Thanks

 

sounds like spray paint from what youve described, you can wet sand it off and it would be safer then chemicals, im not sure what the spoiler is made of.

 

dewalt palm sander, 60 grit up to 100 grit, and time is your ally.

 

^^ 60 is a bit coarse dont you think? Regardless, keep going up to 400 before you prime it.

 

nah, not as long as you don't apply pressure, just let the palm sander work with its own weight. I redid a wing one time on a old M3 that had bad fade and chipping on it. started with 60, went to 180 and repainted, and then he went and had his brother who was a body guy spray it. he tack clothed it and sprayed it, no additional sanding.

 

that would sounds good on regular paint but cheap spray paint clogs up course sandpaper too fast, in order to get it not to cog up sandpaper, if it is cheap spray paint like what he says you've got to wet sand it with like 320 or if you can find some wet 220 the coursest wet paper you can find.

 

Hey, thanks for the replys so far.

I can't be 100% sure, but I think the guy I bought it from said something about alkaline-based paint. (I don't know a whole lot about paint, so I could be wrong) There's atleast 2 thick coats of this crap over top of the OEM paint. Basically it scrapes off with a butter knife, exposing the original paint underneath. I was really hoping there would be an easy way to strip it, but I may have to invest a lot of time with a sander! Any other suggestions?

Thanks

 

If you can scrape it with a butterknife.. I suggest going to a hardware store and picking up some plastic scrapers.. they are square with three rounded edges and one pointy one.. Should allow you to get under the soft paint without causing damage to the spoiler.

You want the "lil chisler" or something similar.

Link <-- click me!

 

Hey if you could find out if it is household paint, alot of household paints contain petroleum distillates and aren't water based so the best way to reduce and get the color off.....Oh yea you got it Lighter fluid!!! What you going to want to do is dab it and dont leave it set for too long should wipe off though...i recently did a brand new mercedes that had parked under a construction area and got paint all over it and found that to be the easiest method..