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Strip and Paint Dart

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:46 pm
by Feathers
I would like to strip and paint my 1961. The original interior is cleaning up great.
I have never painted a fiberglass car. Alright I never painted a car.
My son does it for a living so the paint should go well.
It has at least one respray that has a lot coming through.
Has anyone used Aircraft Fiberglass Paint Remover? http://kleanstripauto.com/products/airc ... nt-remover
Looks like it works and there is so much paint would save a lot of time.
I have tried looking for paint and prep advice on this forum and can’t seem to browse the old form.
Does anyone have a basic outline of what products and methods to use to repaint this car? I have attached some pictures to outline what problems I can see.
Please advise.

Thanks
John

Re: Strip and Paint

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 5:59 pm
by Sydsmith
Hi John. Pity you cannot get into the old forum it was loaded with advice on painting an SP250.

Several successful ways have been used to strip the paint off the body, pressure blast it with hot water, soda blast, paint stripper and of course there is good old hard work with wet and dry paper.

Fibreglass is a strange animal, hot water blasting certainly gets the paint off easily but you then need lots of time to dry out the shell, weeks, especially with those star cracks in your photo. Some paint strippers strip off or damage the vital gell coat. Wet and dry sanding is extremely hard work so for my money I would prefer a dry soda blast (not sand) job, messy but very effective and it avoids the drying time and gell coat problem.

That having been said I don't have any knowledge of the paint stripper you have identified.

What I do know is that you do need to be very careful how you repair the cracks you will always find especially around the corners of the trunk and hood.

There is plenty of reading our there about special fillers and resins that will help you on your way, in my view the prep work stripping the paint repairing cracks and star cracks is the tough bit once that is done the paining is easy by comparison. Good Luck with the project. Syd
P.S. The Reliant and the Lotus cars clubs have lots on this subject also.

Re: Strip and Paint

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 6:21 pm
by John-B
Feathers wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:46 pm I have tried looking for paint and prep advice on this forum and can’t seem to browse the old form.

Thanks
John
You should be able to search the old forum without logging in. Go to
http://archive.dloc.co.uk/forum/default.asp and click Search.

This topic may help http://archive.dloc.co.uk/forum/topic.a ... fibreglass

If you just click on a forum on the home page, for instance http://archive.dloc.co.uk/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=3 you may not see any topics as they will all be very old, so edit the box that says "Show topics from last 30 days" to "Show all topics".

Re: Strip and Paint

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:53 pm
by gc0700
I'm part the way through the strip and repaint process. And like you, I'm fortunate that my son also paints cars for a living and in his case, is also a Lotus owner, so fortunately is familiar with fiberglass cars.

I went down the abrasive route, but not wet and dry, I used modern commercial (Abranet) abrasives. Althought I do plan to wet & dry, before the final finish coat.

Mine is a 1960 car, that seemed to have had 3 resprays, so I had about 10 coats of paint to remove. As others have indicated, the paint removal, while hard work, is in some way the most straightforward. The major work is dealing with the inevitable cracking, prior repairs and in my case making panels fit, that probably never fitted.

Re: Strip and Paint

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 3:51 pm
by Feathers
John-B wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 6:21 pm
Feathers wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:46 pm I have tried looking for paint and prep advice on this forum and can’t seem to browse the old form.

Thanks
John
You should be able to search the old forum without logging in. Go to
http://archive.dloc.co.uk/forum/default.asp and click Search.

This topic may help http://archive.dloc.co.uk/forum/topic.a ... fibreglass

If you just click on a forum on the home page, for instance http://archive.dloc.co.uk/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=3 you may not see any topics as they will all be very old, so edit the box that says "Show topics from last 30 days" to "Show all topics".
Thanks John That got me in and able to search.

Re: Strip and Paint

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 2:17 am
by Automospe
I own a Corvette restoration shop and have been working primarily with fiberglass bodies for over 40 years. I also own a SP that I have restored. The klean-Strip product you are referring to is likely the safest method of paint removable for your fiberglass body. We have used it for years with no adverse effects.
Tom

Re: Strip and Paint

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 1:37 pm
by Feathers
Automospe wrote: Tue Mar 19, 2019 2:17 am I own a Corvette restoration shop and have been working primarily with fiberglass bodies for over 40 years. I also own a SP that I have restored. The klean-Strip product you are referring to is likely the safest method of paint removable for your fiberglass body. We have used it for years with no adverse effects.
Tom
Thanks Tom
If you watch the YouTube videos the paint falls off.
I like that.

John

Re: Strip and Paint Dart

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 6:51 pm
by Feathers