without trashing them? I found a set of finned cal custom style on ebay, but they are powdercoated a lovely yellow. Not my style...Can I just bead blast this off, or will it pit the surface? Or??? Thanks!
Bead blasting will take it off, if you have good media, anda high quality blaster. Of course it will leave you with that bead blasted look....if you were planning to polish them, I'd recommend taking the time to strip them. A very good quality aircraft stripper will take off powdercoating, takes some elbow grease witha scrub brush though. But it'll leave a smoother finish.
The beadblasted look is what I dont want. Do the strippers change the color, like turn the aluminum white? or otherwise attack it? Its starting to look like I need to just buy some clean ones....by the time I get them blasted and polished back, I can just buy a nice set..
I just painted a high dollar cannondale bicycle for a customer and it was powder coated and for love or money it was not comin off. I tried everything from my buddies high dollar bead blast cabinet to strippers.Ended up having the sandblaster down the street from me hit it lightly. Cant stay in one place to long cause it would not be pretty.what hillbilly is sayin might work if your really scrubbin.Plus what kinda quality coating is on the cover you never know it could be some **** that comes off easy. If it was me blastem and polish them with a wheel and some good componds.Goodluck later Shoe
I once got a great deal on an oil pan that was painted pink! I had a gl*** bead cabinet, so hey, no problem - just masked it off REALLY good, then went over that with about two rolls of duct tape for insurance. After blasting, I unmasked it, and spent some time blowing it out with air, rinsing with lacquer thinner, more air, more thinner, etc...Put it on my killer small block and wiped out the rings and bearing within 50 miles! When I tore it down, I found a trail of gl*** bead running through all the oil p***ages - doh! Live and learn...
I finally found the early Edelbrock valve covers that I wanted. Problem was that they had three coats of powercoating on them. I did not want to blast them because that as soon as the grit broke thru the paint it would eat the aluminum way faster than the surrounding paint. Stripper seamed to not have any effect on the stuff. I made a form that the covers would fit down into. I lined the form with al. foil and set the cover in it. I made forms to fit inside the cover too. Covered the covers with aircraft stripper. It took three days but it all came off.
What did you make the forms from? Did you basically soak them in the stripper for 3 days? No discoloration of the aluminum? I could handle that. I figured the blast medium would go after the bare aluminum before it took off more coating. Any other techniques?
Powdercoating shops remove powdercoating all the time, and they've got the process down. On eBay I bought a very inexpensive Brodix SBC intake that had been powdercoated silver, took it to the powdercoating shop across from mine, and got it back looking like it was new. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
You might check with a head shop and have those guys dip them for you in that stinkin **** they use on heads. A friend of mine used to have a barrel of it. It smelled like carb dip. As a last resort you could have them powdercoated aluminum color, then put them back on ebay.
I used to refinish aluminum bicycle frames that were powder coated. I used chemical strippers. It was alot of work but they turned out fine and the chemicals did not ruin the aluminum. If you're going to try it, use Aircraft stripper; JASCO ****s.
Yea, I completely submerged them in stripper for three days. The forms were plywood. The block inside the covers were 2x4's cut to fit. It had absolutely no effect on the alum. Cover every thing so the good stuff does not evaperate. Cuts down on the smell too. All this form business is to cut down on the amount of stripper I had to buy.
Just dropped off a set of aluminum wheels yesterday at the powder coaters. (previously powder coated) They recomend you DON'T bead blast OR sand blast aluminum to remove powder coat, it WILL etch the surface. (the coating gets into the pores of the aluminum) As Dave said, they have special strippers (chemical) that don't affect the original surface; just remove the powder coating.
there is a spe******t paint stripper for powder coat ,i used it some time back on some badly powdered motorcycle parts...........Marq p.s most good auto paint shops will have it but be very careful with eyes hands and use old clothes it is DEADLY and i mean that...............Marq p.s apart from all that it works a treat
Loc***e Chisel, gasket stripper will normally do a good job. We have found several different types of powdercoat. Suzuki for instance can have upto 3 different coatings on their framework. To be honest, I reckon it's to cover the lousy welding. When working on these pieces we found that Chisel took off the top coat, but it wouldn't touch the second coat which was more like a filler. Napa's industrial paint stripper did that. ($14 a quart) Then we discovered a base coat, the Napa stuff wouldn't touch that. Aircraft stripper did that if I remember rightly. Most powder coarts will fall off if parts are baked to 350 degrees. However, ***mins uses a coating that is heat resistant. That **** just gets harder. We found the Napa gasket strip did a number on that but it needed 4 or 5 applications to get it clean. We use a kids play pool that looks like a turtle complete with lid to strip in. Contains the fumes and allows us to strip 2 wheels at a time. Bead blasting isn't a good deal as it just bounces off the powder coat and makes aluminum uneven as it comes off in patches, but sometimes we've found it best way to clean up especially if 80/90 percent of coating is gone, as when coatings have had stripper on them bits that are left become brittle and blast off a lot easier. If anybody knows of a 1 step deal, I'd be glad to know it. Save me some time, and save customers money.
Get you some aircraft stripper,put it on thick & wrap them in plastic or seran wrap.It keeps the chemical & fumes on the paint,& controls evaporation.The top restoration shops in the country strip the paint from cars this way it's called milage.I used 1 gallon like this & stripped a complete 55'chevy 210 wagon to bare metal,removing 4 layers of paint & primer.By using the plastic,It takes very little stripper,& it stays wet & soaks thru the layers of paint to the metal.It will melt powder coat as well.It takes a little longer than paint.
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