ShopTalk Forums | Aircooled VW Tech & Restoration Help

I have a set of phone dials that I am trying to get the old finish off of. I have used gasket remover,aircraft stripper and paint stripper that swears it will take off anything from paint to powdercoating and so far all it has done is take off some of the anodising. I have let it set for 15min to overnight and still nothing. I would like to polish the outside lip and brush the rest of it so i'm a little wary of sandblasting them. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance, John

Try plastic bead blasting, it will take it off. At my work we use it to remove paint from gearbox housings off Gas turbine engines, The paint we use is made by the indestructible paint company and is very tough heat resistant paint and plastic bead removes it like it was paper. Make sure you have the air set at around 30 psi or it could possibly bed into the metal if it is used at a higher pressure, cheers Damien.

Duct tape. I'm a specialty media blaster at PSC in Seattle. Wipe what you dont want blasted down with a solvant and apply 2-3 layers of a good brand duct tape like 357, and go at it. I blast stuff like that all day long at 110psi and never hurt the surface. Just make sure you dont pound on the duct tape as if you do, you will wear it away, but It will hold up plenty fine against the overspray. Or you can use glass beed(glass oxide) pretty much the same thing as the plastic beed, but it will only fog the polish and still remove the paint without the embedding problem.

I have always had good results from eastwoods products.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/prod ... ductID=751

Mike

Thanks guys.I think i'm going to try the gasket remover again with a little more elbow grease this time before I sandblast them. John

will remove anodising

-but it will also eat the alloy

try that carburetor dip that comes in a gallon... might be made by berrymans i'm not sure........ that stuff seems to take anything off