What are the options on removing paint?

[jon1996]

I am in the process of restoring a 1962 Ford 821 Powermaster backhoe, Someone at some point in time painted the whole thing Cat yellow, Now I have all the tractor sheet metal off and it wont be to bad with a wire brush on a grinder,

But the FEL and the backhoe would be a nightmare, Its thick and they painted over the original paint, I thought about sandblasting but have had very little luck with a blaster and thick paint takes forever,

So what option do I have? Liquid stripper and then pressure wash? How do those sandblasters that hook to a pressure washer do?

 

[KansasFarmer]

Go to your local auto paint supply store and get some gel paint stripper and neutralizer. Use a brush to apply, wait a few minutes and it scrapes right off.

 

[strum456]

If just brushing it on doesnt work fast enough, put some masking plastic on it for about an hour then scrape it.

 

[john_bud]

Go to your local auto paint supply store and get some gel paint stripper and neutralizer. Use a brush to apply, wait a few minutes and it scrapes right off.

Have you ever done that with a large piece of equipment? :confused2: You're talking about needing a couple 5 gal containers as it will take a multiple applications to get through the layers. That ain't cheap.

I would use a pressure vessel sand blaster. The siphon units are toys at best.

If you don't want to invest in a 300 tool, then how about a needle scaler? Harbor Freight sells one that is decent.

 

[Zebrafive]

Rather than sand isn't there a powered iron/steel that really takes paint off?

 

[SPYDERLK]

Oven cleaner

 

[Soundguy]

even purple stuff will do it.

all in all.. if he's de-painting a backhoe.. it's gonna be alot of work no matter what mechanical or chemical means he uses..

soundguy

 

[Gary Fowler]

A heat gun will curl it up just like the naval jelly ready to scrape off. If he has a cutting torch, he could burn it off also. Just have to be careful with the fumes and dont overheat the metal.
I think the easiest would be the naval jelly soak followed by 3000 PSI pressure wash. You would need some protective clothing like slicker suit with hood, rubber boots and goggles+ face shield for your eyes along with rubber gloves for hands as that stuff is highly caustic.

 

[dfkrug]

If just brushing it on doesnt work fast enough, put some masking plastic on it for about an hour then scrape it.

Once I did a whole car that had 2 layers of paint on it. I used about 2
gallons of the stripper, as I recall. If you scratch the surface of the paint
first with 60-grit paper, you can speed up the process. You can even hear
the paint coming off. I used a putty knife to remove the soft paint.

But don't let it dry. I did not do too much surface area at once, and in
tough places, I used STRUM's trick to keep the stripper wet while it did its
work.

 

[Artisan]

Texas Blaster if you can't find/get a local media blasting company to strip it. I wasted a ton of time and effort doing it myself. Never again, I will find a pro to do it. My 5HP 80 Gallon compressor WITH a siutcase compressor was barely enough to push it "properly" as well. You need big air. The hassle of obtaining media, the media mess, oh man...everything is a PITA.