Paint Stripping/Metal Prep

[P. Stegawski]

I did a "down to the metal" stripping and repaint on my GTI 16v, which
probably had the same anti corosion protection as your audi (same paint
system). The Aircraft Paint Stripper didn't seem to go through the
anti-corosion coating, but it is also imposible to remove ALL the paint
everwhere from a panel, so I ended up sanding after cleaning up the paint
stripper mess, which did go down to bare metel. As long as you use a good
primer with rust inhibitor you should be fine as far as corosion goes.

On a side note I don't think paint strippers are worth the trouble. Paint
removal will go much quicker using a drill and a paint removal disk. You
can find those in places that do paint mixing, or body shop supply stores.
I use the 3M ones and they work the best, and come in different sizes to
get into different places. I the case of the GTI I had to repeat the
stripping process 3 or 4 times to get the factory paint off. It goes a lot
better if you cover the panel you just applied stripper to with a tarp, as
it prevents quick evaporation, and the stripper has time to penetrate
deeper into the paint

Peter
'90 200 TQ

On Sat, 16 Mar 2002, George Butler wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Not to start a new thread on removing paint, but...
>
> In several weeks I will be beginning the prep work for painting my 84 4ksq.  When it comes to surface preparation I'm thinking about using aircraft paint remover to get down to the metal and then using metal cleaner to neutralize any oxidation I may run into.  I decided on the "down-to-the-metal" approach after removing the hood a while ago on my spare 4ksq and using  220-grit to scuff up the surface prior to painting it.  I began to notice what appeared to be tiny (initially) rust "stains" in numerous places.  Of course, more sanding led to more sanding and these stains, not surprisingly,  turned out to be from tiny rust spots on the metal.  Had I not continued to sand, I would simply have painted over the rust.  No surprises next time.  After this long-winded preface, I need to know if using paint stripper will also remove any anti-corrosion protection that the volks at Audi would have put in place?
> TIA.
>
> Regards,
>
> George B.
> Massachusetts
>