R

rvbob

Member
All,

I'm an planning on repainting my RV-3 as the original enamel is showing its age. I would appreciate anyone's experience with paint strippers and stripping - what brands work on aluminum and composite, techniques, etc. Any all all help appreciated.

Bob Knauff
RV-3 N65ZM
 
Painting RV

Bob,
There are numerous paint strippers on the market that will do a good job. Stay away from the meth. chloride base strippers usually sold as "Aircraft Stripper". They will cause severe burns on exposed skin and the fumes are toxic, especially in poor ventilated areas.
The best strippers IMHO are the Hydrogen Peroxide base products, user friendly, non haz mat, they work well on enamels, the stripper/paint residue can be dried and is easily disposed of.
It has been a while since I have purchased stripper, an internet search should provide a source.
Dick
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look for it; do you remember a brand that worked for you?

Bob Knauff
 
OMG too funny

Like my friend who caught a magnificent Striped Bass and emailed his wife that he'd caught a "beautiful stripper"...

A little while back I was looking into repainting my Cherokee and I read a lot about soda blasting. This is a technique that uses baking soda in a "sand blaster" to strip off the paint. Zero toxic waste, and best part is you wash the residue off with a garden hose. With chemical strippers any bit left in a seam or crack will ruin the new paint.

Maybe someone here has some experience with this technique and can weigh-in.

Here's a video describing the process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiD3uDScgSo
 
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Re Painting my RV

FWIW, Stripping an airplane, even with the new enviornmental strippers, can be a lot of work. I would venture to say " You would probably not be willing to strip a second airplane" if you have done one before. To do the job PROPERLY you need a facility, and equiptment, suited for the job. The stripper can damage plastic (windows) (Fairings) these need to be either removed or covered with aluminum tape. Stripper residue left on the airframe, especially lap seams, can cause problems, corrosion down the road or blistering of the new paint. Pressure washing with hot water is the perfered method. The waste water can contain residue stripper and paint, this needs to be disposed of properly, not flushed down the drain.
RV people , for the most part are skilled and resourcefull and certinally capeable of doing the job, but, some jobs, IMHO, are better left to the professionals.
 
I ran a maint shop for a paint/interior facility. They tried the soda and dry ice stripping. Trainees went to Pittsburgh and the first few airplanes were sent there for stripping by the "factory guys" so that it could be done "right". All the planes came back oil-canned and a cheyenne was so bad it was totalled by the insurance company. Bottom-line is that it works good on thick-skinned airliners and warbirds, not so good on spam cans.
 
The above sounds very reasonable. I managed a company that did high end metal decoration on elevator doors. We would sometimes "frost" a design on a door by applying a vinyl cutout and then blasting with fine sand. You would not believe how just a 30% coverage pattern even on .050 brass will pull and distort a 4x10 sheet. I would think that a 100% blast on a thin aluminum sheet would be disastrous.
 
I've recently used a peroxide based stripper, and although it seemed quite benign environmentally I found it to be very slow acting compared to Chloride-type strippers. On some applications (I was stripping enamels) you have to apply, wait 6 hours, scrape and then repeat....sometimes 2 more times. In the end I prefer the noxious although quicker application of Methylene Chloride but I will admit I don't like working with the stuff for any reason other than speed. Also the "green" stripper is expensive and hard to get, although I see it around more now than last year.
 
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