R

RV8dude

I'm New Here
I have an old RV project that has been painted. I want strip the paint off to repaint. What tips or techniques can you guys offer?
 
Is it top-coated or just in primer?
Do you know what kind/type of paint and primer are on it?
Just so you know, this is a very messy, nasty job. I figure most of the cost of a plane paint job is the stripping off the old paint. At least it would be if I was in that business. I hope I never have to do it again.
 
I've seen........

....some aircraft paint shops use aluminum tape and foil to protect stripper sensitive areas like the plexiglass and wing/empennage tips and landing light/nav light lenses.

Nasty job,
 
Like Pierre said, adhesive foil on all the plastics. Use the strongest stripper full of methyl chloride you can get your hands on, but DON'T get your hands on it. I've got 25 yr old scars look like cigarette burns on my forearms from stripping Navions in the sun. Eye protection and a water supply RIGHT handy. Water kills the Methyl chlor quickly and stops the burn.
 
Bead blasted with a soft material?

Recently, a friend had his Piper bead blasted with a soft material that removed the paint, left the alum intact, and he was ready to go to prep & primer in 2 days. I believe he paid $1000 and the blasting team came to him along with their gas powered compressor.

Obviously, your city may not have such a vendor but at least you know it's possible. I expect others will tell you not to blast alum with anything but several A & Ps have looked at the bare alum Piper and offered no cautions or warnings.

If you use chemicals instead, wear gloves and a forced air respirator. Treating cancer is not cheap. Ask me how I know.

Barry
Tucson
 
Paint stripping

Stripping the paint from an airplane is a difficult job to say the least. However, there are strippers available that will do the job and do not contain M.C. a clorinated hydrocarbon, BAD STUFF. These strippers, active ingredients are usually comprised of hydrogen peroxide and alcohol in an ionyzed water emulson. They work well, probably not quite as good as the M.C. base strippers, but will do the job.
The new strippers are much more user friendly and some are even HASMAT free. If you strip an airplane once, I will almost guarantee you will never do it again, it is a job best left to professionals.
Dick
 
stripping paint

When you're stripping a large area, use clear plastic sheeting to cover the area after applying the chemical stripper. This will help to slow the evaporation and improve the strippers effectiveness. After waiting an appropriate period of time, just remove the plastic sheet and you will find that most of the stripped paint will be adhere to the plastic sheet. Clean up becomes much easier.
Never use chemical stripper on fiberglass---sand the paint off.
As stated earlier, wear the best protective clothing you can find!!
Warm, blue skies,
Chuck Brietigam
RV-3
Rolls of clear plastic film are available at most paint suppliers (two to four mill thickness is enough)
 
I used an environmentally-friendly hydrogen peroxide based stripper (I think) called Napier SV-35 Remove-All. I got it from Canada, but it looks like they may be out of the UK now. I'm sure there are equivalent products. You applied it with an industrial airless sprayer (rented from Home Depot) with the biggest tip they had. It was thick and pink. No odor and was MUCH friendlier to work with than the Methol Chloride stuff. It worked well and after getting most of it off (and the paint sludge), I washed the plane off with a pressure washer (gently). It worked best upside down, as gravity would pull the sheets of paint off as the stripper worked, and you didn't have to worry about it drying out.
http://www.paint-stripper.co.uk/removall_paint_stripper_aviation.htm

Good luck, and if you need help....I'll be busy that day/week/month!:D
 
stripping tips

To dispose of the paint I find used carpet, friends (sort of) or carpet places will give it to you. I strip parts over the carpet, it catches the paint as I rinse it off, I let it dry and then it is deemed safe to take to the land fill. The good strippers are temperature sensitive, too cool and it doesn't want to work, too hot and as soon as it touches the metal it boils. Warm 70's to 90, and in shade. Direct sun light makes it very hard, and if you let the stripper dry you will have a very tough time getting it off. Flush every thing for a lot longer than you think it should be. If you don't get it all what is left is very corrosive. Most important is to keep a hose near to put out the fire! You will get it on you and it will burn, funny thing is that it tastes sweet for about 2 seconds. Don?t ask! Do not use steel brushes, the steel imbeds into the aluminum and starts corrosion. I cut 1" cheap brushes to about 1/2 inch, use a wider brush to apply, or a chemical sprayer under pressure. Let it work for a couple of minutes, use the short brushes to work it in and find the tough areas. DO NOT LET IT DRY, I keep it wet until I know that the paint is loose and I can see the metal, if you rinse it off you will need to allow the part to dry totally before you apply more stripper. On tougher parts I will use scotch bright pads to finish loosening the paint, it works very well. Buy the expensive good fitting acid gloves, vinyl gloves don?t cut it. I used to work on war birds and have stripped way more than I should have. Feel free to call me if I can help in any way.

Randy
 
The blasting that most people use is a soda blasting technique. It works really well as it does not heat the metal at all as it blast. It also will not hurt rubber or glass.

It does however get EVERYWHERE, if you have one small leak to the inside of your plane, you will fill it with soda dust, it is very messy. We have a skymaster on the field here that was soda blasted. Instead of spraying in the direction of airflow over the plane, they went agianst it and soda was forced into the seams of metal. Now, when it flys through rain, you get nice white streaks of soda coming out of the seams.

If you know how to use it and are careful, soda blasting works great and you can do it outside, once it rains, the soda goes away.
 
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