Post 32: No Paint

5th August 2018
Post 32: No Paint!


After the Beaulieu expedition the next stage can begin and its one that I wasn't looking forward to, although in a way I am because it is getting closer to the painting stage.


How to get the paint off the panels?  we thought of a few ways, there was the heat gun - basically burn it off, then there was the chemical attack - using paint stripper, sanding with a grinder/orbital sander and finally scraping.  Which then is best?


First up - the chemical attack: Firstly, the weather here in the UK has been very hot, reminiscent of the summer of 1976, yes I can remember that one, which is not very helpful when you have to work hard to remove the paint!, My friend volunteered to start the process on the hottest day of the year so far.  How he managed to get anywhere I will never know but attack the front shroud he did.  See his efforts below.

Application of paint stripper

More paint stripper

Hard scrapping - lots of mess

End result - ready for final sanding and re-modelling

This all seemed a bit like harder than it should be really and creates lots of nasty chemical debris that you don't want to get every where - and it does. so we tried the heat gun on the boot - not the shrouds as they are alloy!


No pictures here but the heat gun wasn't that successful either - yes it got the paint of but it was slow and the panel very hot.  Also there was some funny paint beneath the top coat that had the occasion to set fire!
Sanding with the angle grinder is very noisy of-course, works yes but not too happy using it for the whole of the panel areas - it too creates lots of dust.


Scraping then, without the application of the paint stripper seemed to be the quickest way forward, with the angle grinder in difficult places.  Final surface sanding with the orbital sander after scrapping - the results then. .

The bonnet - first few minutes of plain scraping

After about 30-40 minutes

Wings half scraped

Finished wing - coated in metal prep to stop rust forming

Boot lid

All panels scrapped and ready for fitment work starting next weekend - looking forward to that because apart from progressing on to the next step, scrapping panels clear of paint isn't my idea of fun!