Removing flames on paint-any ideas?

I tried a tiny bit of laquer thinner on the green and the green will come off with a small amount of rubbing, but the flames really react to the laquer thinner....telling me there may be something that'll remove the flames without hurting the green paint job. Sopmething between laquer thinner and mineral spirits, which does nothing. What are your guys ideas? BTW, I'll pay someone if they're interested. Thanks

 

Have you tried polishing compound and a high speed buffer?

 

No, I'm afraid to damage the green underneath as it has no protective clear coat

 

if the flames are done with like one-shot over a regular paint job use EZ OFF oven cleaner

 

Try 3M extracut buffing compound and a wool pad. tape off the edges so you don't burn through.

 

I will second the oven cleaner, a guy down here did it with his Model A to take the primer off the top of a nitro orig coat......worked really well! I didnt see him do it though, so i cant give you any pointers..........pm Lowsquire.....he will have the lowdown!

 

what he said, but be real carefull with that stuff, it will take your skin off. i would try rubbing compound with a buffer first and work your way down to finer grits.

 

X 3 on oven cleaner, I took lettering off my van with it. Wear gloves, and I might try a little hidden spot first to make sure it wont attack your base.

 

if its got a gloss, then its either basecoat clearcoat or single stage. if laquer thinner doesnt affect it, its pretty tough paint.the oven cleaner will only work if its like synthol enamel.in other words, the darker green paint is a lot better quality paint than the paint that the flames are painted in. am i making any sense?

 

depending on how long they' ve been on, removal may still leave you with ghost flames. Non faded to faded. Try EZ Off somewhere where it won't show.

 

Have you tried a fire extinguisher?

You may be time and money ahead to just scuff the whole works, anywhere flamed that is, and shoot over them.

As mentioned, depending on how long they have been on there, you may end up with "ghost" flames even after removal due to fading everywhere else.

 

Chances are nothing.... if they were layed out and put on by anybody that knows what they are doing , after they layed them out they had to scuff or sand the surface of the green paint to get them to stick. so you are probably not going to just wipe them off. I as a painter guarentee my paint work , so I make sure that **** is sanded, or the first rain storm your paint flies off and then I have to figure out how I'm going to blend these colors and remask the flames, which is next to impossible. so i am putting money on you will be sanding the car down and repainting, but then again i might not know what I'm talking about, i only do it all day long 7 days a week.

 

Groucho .....

You are ****in Nuts if you spray Oven Cleaner on that Car.

It will EAT ALL the paint right the **** off.

I used Oven Cleaner years ago to STRIP the Laquar off the Front Fenders of my '60 ElCamino.

Worked AWSOME !!

1 application & right thru 2 piant jobs down to bare metal !

 

If the green base does not have clear on it, get you some 1000grit wet or dry and block it off. The oven cleaner will go right through the paint that isn't protected with clear...

 

THAT'S exactly what I thought! I was just waiting for someone to to say something to that affect. I've seen guys use oven cleaner to degrease an engine compartment and it seems to acid etch the **** out of everything, making it absolutely necessary to repaint everything

 

groucho. after thinking about it, maybe desoto is right. that a lot of area for oven cleaner. i'm tellin ya, thats some toxic ****. i use it to take lettering off of semi doors which is small compared to your flames and even then i'm hacking and gagging.

 

you might try (goof off) or (Krud kutter), both can be found at home depot or lowes. we use them to remove latex paint and sometimes oil based.

 

yeh... I wouldn't try it on a nice paint job, we did it on an Amodel that had been blown over with flat black, and it came off pretty easy, but the paint underneath was eaten too, in spots,wanted a patinated look anyway, so it didnt matter.
Trying to get back to an even ,good condition layer underneath would be pretty impossible with this method I would think, I guess if you are resigned to repainting the front clip if it doesnt work, then try it out, but dont say I didnt warn ya!

 

You wanna know how Gnarley Easy Off Is ????

Get an old RUSSEL A/n Fitting ... Ya Know the Blue & red anodized Street Rod & Race Car Stuff ?

Spray Oven Cleaner on it, Wait a few while it Bubbles Like a Cracked out ****** with a Yeast Infection .... Then wipe it off.

You will have a Semi Polished RAW aluminum Fitting.

Dont Get it on your Pecker Groucho, You cant afford to lose any Skin from your Baby Carrot

 

i dont agree with that. like i said, i use it to take lettering off of semi doors and for that small area,, it works great and the original paint will polish out great ,although it does leave a ghost impression of the old lettering which i cover up with new lettering.it does however etch aluminum and turn it black.bottom line dont use oven cleaner for that large of an area.i feel better now!

 

Oven cleaner will take enamel based paint off acrylic paint. First check a small spot of your base colour to ensure the cleaner doesn't attack it. If this works OK then mask the general area and spray a little cleaner onto a small area of your flames. If after a few minutes it starts to bubble etc you are in business and can spray all the flames. You must then wash the flames off with water and a rag. You may have to repeat the process a few times to get rid of all the flames. Make sure you wear gloves it will kill your skin and nails. I have done this a lot removing signwriting from vehicles and it works fine. Just check in a hidden area that your paints are suitable for this process.

 

I'm usually good at pulling things off like this.

However... I think I would have the paint matched, shoot the front & blend the doors.

I too think that even if you could get it off you would still have a ghosting effect.

 

Oven cleaner is nasty stuff. I use it in a pinch to strip paint down to bare metal. It's not at all easy to control.

If that beauty were mine, I'd sand it all down and re-spray the nose. Matching the color shouldn't be difficult by a pro jobber. Looks like you have some paint chips anyway. Don't take that the wrong way, just saying.....

 

i'll bet you are confused now.right?

 

screw it..leave em on there and change the wheels

ok , I know....im taking the easy way out

 

sandpaper

 

Have to agree on the sand and reshoot the nose suggestion. Unless the flames are REALLY poorly applied, you are gonna have a real tough time pulling this off.

Goofoff is essentially the same as mineral spirits. Prob won't do much.

I have had some success using toluene as it is a fairly aggressive solvent but fast enough it will evaporate before getting into your base color. But this is a real wild card as we are only guessing what your paints are.

Regardless... Are the flames painted over the hood louvers too? If they are, you are pretty much screwed on doing anything other than making a big mess.

Consider scuffing and reshooting the nose before wiping solvent or God forbid caustic all over that base paint. You might find yourself having to strip the car down to the metal to start over from scratch rather than saving any time or money with a shortcut.

Keep us informed!

 

hell, they dont look bad.

 

Thats funny ****!!!!! But seriously, If the green isnt cleared there is no way to really get it off without repainting. Even if it is cleared you can sand it and reclear, flat or gloss, and still see the outline of where the flames were. Ive done lots of painting in 20 years and flames and any kind of taped off graphics are the hardest to get rid of. You can sand em down with 180 grit, prime em, seal em, and then paint over em and still see the etch marks come back after a couple of days in the Texas sun! If it was me, I would spray some rattle can clear on a part that your gonna have to repaint and go to your local paint jobber to get the color camera matched. Then sand the flames off and prime with a high build primer, block to perfection and repaint. This is just experience speaking though, so take it as you will and good luck!

 

OK, enough with the oven cleaner. Let's move on. Also, I CAN live with the ghost effect. I just don't want that flame job jumping out at me. So, what else ya got?