Hello ! I recently bought a car from a friend , and fellow member on here, and it has some pinstripes that I would like to remove. The car was painted about 15 years ago with Kirker acrylic enamel single stage paint, NO clearcoat. What is the best way to remove all these stripes? I have tried Easy Off oven cleaner (yellow can) on an inconspicuous spot of paint, and it dulls the paint, and seems to eat into it a bit? I left it on for 10 minutes. I hand-polished the spot, and the shine comes back, but there is definitely an outline that looks like it was etched into the paint in the shape of the spot of oven cleaner. I also tried acetone and it dis-colored the paint. I did not try ether product on the pinstripes themselves, just a spot of the grey paint that won't be seen. I do not trust myself to sand the stripes off without going too far. What have you done that works? -use easyoff but mask everything else besides the stripes, and work fast? -eraser wheel? -some other magic fluid? I heard that graffiti solutions "smooth max" might work?
Wet sand (say 1500 grit) with a block followed by polish, be gentle. Take it steady and you’ll be fine, way less chance of damaging the paint than a solvent
I used Easy Off on my roadster to remove the stripes so I could have them re-applied last year. I have base/clear and the oven cleaner wiped them right off and didn't touch the paint. I left it on for only 5 minutes and worked in small sections, neutralizing with detail spray and using rubbing compound to catch little areas that I missed. The pin-striper I used to re-apply them said he would not remove stripes any longer. He used to and there were too many paint issues as a result. I would be hesitant of oven cleaner or solvents on single stage paints especially if I wasn't the one that sprayed it. There are a lot of paints on the market and there's a reason some are less expensive. The same goes with wet sanding, who knows how much paint is on there. I would work in a remote area that can be easily spot painted just in case. It won't take much pressure and I would try wet 2000-1500 and work backward to 1000 or 800 if the going is tough, though 800 scratches on a single stage could be hard to polish out depending again on paint quality. Worse case, you can have someone paint over the existing artwork.
15 years old paint job…. My best advise is to learn to love them. I would not use any chemicals on paint this old. I would try 2000 wet sanding and a lot of patience. Be ready to repaint the car if you are not satisfied with the results. Paint matching-spot painting at this point in time is unlikely to give a perfect, hidden match. Your best, most economical way might be find an artist-painter who can design something new that you like which paints over the design you can’t live with.
Agree with Russ. That old, single stage, and one concern.. actually a couple.... if the base paint wasn't sanded and buffed then your dealing with an uneven surface under the striping and sanding may just leave bits and pieces of the striping paint in the lows/pores of the base paint. Depending on the thickness/wear of the base paint (washing, polishing, waxing) you might find you hit primer around the stripe before you remove it... ....
I agree with everyone else...you are out of luck. One-Shot stripping paint has 3 times the amount of "solids" and is laid down at least twice as thick as your auto paint. There is no way to sand it off without damaging the auto paint, and unless your body paint has a hardener, chemicals won't work either.
Gonna be tough not to over sand the white There’s a trick we use for a paint run or sag. Apply a thin layer of 2 part putty/glaze over the area with the run. Then sand. The putty allows the area to sand level. dang that would be slow. An eraser wheel is for stickers or vinyl stripes
Oven Cleaner works wonders , if you know what it is . It would be a tough call for me to choose how to correctly remove and “ paint over paint “ a mistake could be a rather costly mistake . As Mr . Anthony has said the eraser wheel may do fine , just go easy heat on paint isn’t your friend .
I add to the Easy Off oven cleaner.. I use what we call an acid brush or a 1/2 bristle brush cut down 3/8” or 1/2 bristles. Apply about 6” let sit2-3 minutes then work with the short bristle brush….wipe with Tee shirt rag…. I’ve never had a problem as long as it was One-Shot over the paint or clear.
My bet is that you will never completely get rid of them. I had a '63 Galaxie with a lot of writing painted on it. Took it to the body shop to have it removed and repainted. Could still see ghost images after it was done.
If it were my car, I would sand them off and buff the paint back to a shine. But, that always comes with the hazard of screwing up the paint. So, it might require repainting or at least touching up some areas. Heck, back when I was painting Harley's all the time, I couldn't even look hard at pinstripes without wiping them out sometimes. Seems they are hard to get rid of when you want them gone and easy to screw up when you want to save them.
Did they use a catalyst in the single stage paint? If not almost any solvent will mess with the paint. If it was catalyzed, acetone shouldn't hurt it, and should remove the stripes.
my buddy had a body shop for a couple years. he had a custom van come in for a repaint. he sanded the whole van for paint and removed the pinstripes. after he painted it you could see where the pinstripes were through the new paint. that's all I got.
I had the same problem with my Model A. The ever popular blue pinstripes on the red. Ugh. The paint appeared to be catalyzed acrylic enamel. I tried a couple different methods but ended up sanding carefully with 800 and 1500 grit. It was nerve wracking but it came out fine. Unfortunately, in just the right light and just the right angle you can see the ghost of the old flames. Find out what you can about the paint job. If it’s catalyzed and there’s a nice thick amount of paint you should be fine sanding if you’re careful.
I'm also in the "leave 'em be" camp. From the photos, they ok. The result you might have to live with may be worse than living with what you have. And I seriously doubt that anyone out there aside from you, cares all that much.
I used lacquer thinner to remove 15 year old pinstriping, the car was painted with single stage enamel. HRP
I understand wanting to get rid of those pin stripes, I would try to get rid of them if it was mine too. I would spend an hour trying different methods as suggested and use the best or combo to take the stripes off....all the while hoping it would burn through so I could repaint the whole car any color but white.
I agree with HRP, I’d try lacquer thinner but I’d get it from an auto paint store, get their opinion on which suits you best. I’d use 1/4” fine line tape along the outside edges of the striping and some 3/4” tape on each side of that to protect the paint outside the stripping. In the pictures it looks like some striping is coming off. Is the pink sprayed on I can’t tell, if so it should wipe off easier than the one shot stripes with thinner. Maybe use thinner or easy off and try to remove some of the one shot, to thin the striping down then carefully sand the stripes off. One other thought I had is finding someone that does pin stripping show them the car and get their opinion.
I agree with HOTRODPRIMER. I would try using lacquer thinner. Try it in a spot that is hidden, like a door jamb or inside the trunk and see if it removes any paint.
I’d try removing them with a razor blade, it’s a good way to remove stripes with light control not damaging the paint underneath them. Having removed paint flaws with razor blades for years including a few pinstripes I believe this is the best way to go at this then a light scuff and buff will blend it all back together. No applied finish other than a factory baked finish will survive oven cleaner. A tip for using razor blades on paint work is to use fresh blades regularly or to run blades across a stone regularly while using, this is what I prefer for larger jobs…
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