Paint Removal

[LoyalSons]

Hey guys, just curious if you have any tips for removing the paint from the frame from a '81 GS 550? Are these frames powder coated or is it traditional paint? I would love to take the easy route with a sandblaster but I don't have one and my local shop wants $100 to blast it. I heard aircraft remover works OK, just wondering on what you all did and past experiences.

 

[landshark]

$100 to sandblast is a good price!

 

[Nessism]

Pay the $100. It's going to cost you half that much in chemicals and supplies to chemically strip and clean the frame, plus about 4-6 hours of labor, and the frame won't turn out nearly as nice as having it blasted.

Check out this thread for more info...http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?217199-1981-Kawasaki-KZ750-Resurrection/page4

 

[Scratcher09]

$100 may be a good price, but I can't afford to pay someone to do what I can do myself. Stripper is less than ten bucks for a quart. Just follow directions. I like to use wire brushes to get into the nooks and crannies.

Another alternative is is using a sanding disk on and angle grinder. But don't use an aggressive grit and be careful not to bite into the metal. I've used both methods without problems.

 

[Nessism]

It all depends on how good a job you want to do. To do the job halfway properly requires a lot more than just $10 worth of stripper...

Materials needed to strip manually:

Paint stripper (high strength type)

Mineral spirits to wash it down stripper

Wire brush(s) to remove residual paint (impossible to get into nooks and crannies)

Metal Prep (phosphoric acid) to remove residual rust (as much as possible anyway)

Scotchbrite pads to scrub down frame prior to painting

 

[Scratcher09]

It all depends on how good a job you want to do. To do the job halfway properly requires a lot more than just $10 worth of stripper...

Materials needed to strip manually:

Paint stripper (high strength type)

Mineral spirits to wash it down stripper

Wire brush(s) to remove residual paint (impossible to get into nooks and crannies)

Metal Prep (phosphoric acid) to remove residual rust (as much as possible anyway)

Scotchbrite pads to scrub down frame prior to painting

Everything listed above are things most people who are painting a frame would (or should) have in their garage anyway. And that list still is only a fourth of the cost of paying someone to sandblast.

 

[bonanzadave]

Using a wire brush with AC Stripper will cause little drops of stripper to go flying. One drop of that sh!t in the eye is painful. Id give up the 100bucks.

 

[60ratrod]

What's fun is getting the stripper on your bare flesh and not having your bottle of water handy to neutralize it. Been a couple of times that happened and I had to spit on that stuff