Anybody out there have any luck exposing old laquer? I have chipped off the old 60's turquoise paint on my 32. It looks good, but grabbed a litte of the black and exposed a little metal. Which now is starting to rust a little in my non heated garage. I'd like to remove the four or five layers of paint on my 34. Looks like there is a nice black laquer underneath. Can anyone tell me of their exspierence? Thanks!
If you have someone locally who does plastic media blasting, they can remove paint one layer at a time.
Huh. That us usually expensive though. I know some people have used lacquer thinner. I was talking to a guy on here last night who had great results. I tried it, seemed slower then chipping off with a dull putty knife. Using the lacquer thinner, I worry about harming the coat I want to save. I'm going to paint the car eventually anyway so it doesn't truly have to be done perfectly. Just waiting for parts, so figured I'd play a little at night in garage. Thanks for any help!
Years ago I bought some plastic putty knives from probably home depot. I can't remember what they were supposed to be for, but I believe maybe wall papering use. Anyway, I was doing a '59 El Camino that had a thirtysomething year old enamel paint job over the original lacquer. I don't remember why, but I grabbed one of the plastic knives (probably couldn't find what I really was looking for!) and to my suprise it worked for exactly what you need to do. Too bad the paint underneath was so far gone, 'cause it would have stripped well. The knives weren't hard plastic, but more like a hard nylon that still had some flexibility and didn't scratch what was underneath the layer being stripped.
i have an old falcon wagon that was a company car and was bright yellow new. my uncle painted it metallic green in the mid 70s because he couldn't take the bright yellow. when i got it the green was thin and flaking off so i washed it with steel wool and scotchbrite pads and alot of the green came off. then just sitting outside for a couple years alot more has came off. it had some thin gray primer on some places and others just a green spray over the yellow. probably one of those $100 paint jobs. i can't decide to paint it or leave it as is it kind of looks cammo.
We used to sand though several layers of paint to make custom grafics. It was a wet sanding process over a paint job with several layers of different colors. You could do basically the same thing only remove all of the top coat. it is going to be labor intensive but that would work, It will end up looking like you color sanded it then you could buff or shoot clear over the top of it to make it look like an old clear over laquer job.
I used to own some VW's and a lot of those guys are fanatical about that stuff. I would check out the Samba.com its the vw version of the hamb. I bet there is some good tech info on there. I have seen those guys strip an old logo'd bus and leave it with the sweetest patina you ever laid your eyes on...
I used oven cleaner on an off topic jeep that was white and someone spray bombed flat black. Im not sure it would take paint off that was properly prepped as I still needed to work some other areas with plumbers PVC primer. The primer may work for what you're doing.
I've done this on other vintage pieces (not cars) by starting with wet sanding then rubbing with mineral spirits until I get to the layer I want. I have had some success with cheap, non-toxic paint strippers as well since they arent as aggressive as their super chemical laden counterparts. Citri-strip allowed me to take some black paint off of a nice teal piece with minimal effort. Once the stripper started to just soften the first layer I washed it off, let it sit a few days, then sanded cleaned and cleared the bottom layer. You can use oven cleaner as long as it contains Lye (the yellow can of easy off, not fume free) which can also be used to strip anodizing as well.
Good stuff here guys, thanks for ideas or your trials and error. Pork, I too have wet sanded multiple layers. Fun! Timely too. Cool result.
Nooch had great results taking off a top layer to expose black laquer with oven cleaner. Shoot him a PM.
FoMoCo didn't use lacquer on their cars, instead, they used Enamel. GM used lacquer because lacquer was developed by DuPont and Dupont owned a piece of GM.
Hey, For the flat and semi-flat panels try single edged razor blades. Soften several of the top layers with oven cleaner, but don't let it sit on the surface for very long. Don't bet the farm on the oem finish to be anything worth all the labor to save it There's a reason it was painted over to begin with. " Humpty Dumpty was pushed "
You might try using a heat gun to soften the outer layers and remove them with a plastic squeege or paint scraper. I've had some luck doing it this way. Dave
I've always liked using a single edge razor blade, then wet sand. This is the deck lid for my Roadster with a coat of wax.
The paint used on a 32 was a nitrocellulose based lacquer. You might want to check on Ford Barn for tips or info
Yesterday I was in charge of my boy so no work got done. An old friend stopped by though and we were talking about the car and it's paint. This guy is the guy I worked under at my 1st restoration job about 15 years ago. He jumped right in with a razor blade. It came off as usual, slow going. He then loaded up some lacquer thinner on am old T shirt and began rubbing. About 4 or 5 layers of paint came off pretty quickly. The bottom layer of 1934 black, seemed to be all there and looking good. I'm sure there will be a primer or raw patch of metal somewhere, but I don't mind. Again, I will be painting this car again down the road. So the paint would need to come off eventually. Just playing really when I get a free hr while I wait for some parts for my build. Thanks for your ideas or good info. I'll post some pics when I get somewhere. I wish I waxed my 32. But my plan always has been to paint it as well.
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