removing paint

[aspares]

I am planning on repainting the Europa this fall. Any suggestions on how to best remove the paint that is now on the car? I have about 3 places (small) that will need some repair but overall no cracking or crazing. The paint that is on the car now seems pretty thin and kind of scratches off in places. I was thinking of going over the entire car with maybe 180 or a bit rougher and see how that goes as far as removing paint. Chemical stripper seems easier but I have only used it on metal cars, not sure it its a good idea with fiberglass.
Any ideas are appreciated.

[BDA]

I have heard that some (all?) strippers are bad for fiberglass as the stripper can be wicked into the fiberglass by the glass strands. Stripper underneath paint is generally frowned upon. That's not to say that there isn't a fiberglass appropriate stripper. I sanded all the paint off my car using an orbital sander. If you go that route, because the fiberglass is so thin, I think it would be a good idea to put a couple of layers of veil over the entire car. That should reduce the likelihood of getting star cracks in the future. I didn't think about that when I did my car and so only did one layer on the doors, the boot, and the bonnet. IIRC, I sanded to 600 grit figuring the primer would be where finer paper would be used. I had my car painted at a good paint shop so I don't really know whether I made more work for them or not but I was happy with the results.

There are some weaker areas that would benefit some strengthening - one is the area around the upper corners of the windshield.

[gideon]

If the car still has the original paint then you you can remove it quite easily if you heat it to the right temperature.  Serge discovered this by leaving his car in the sun.

https://youtu.be/1FudpR_v4og?t=181

A razor blade scraper and a hair dryer or heat gun would help - just don't overheat the fiberglass.  Here's another video showing the same technique applied to a corvette -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VrYP7t1axY&t=58s

[dakazman]

  I’ll agree with BDA. No chemical strips.
 
  I see the problem these cars have when placed in the hot direct sunlight. The paint and the glass seem to counter react to each other one expands and one contracts.  Maybe this is why they have fissures in the paint. That’s s another story. I will take some temperature measurements and post.
Maybe that’s why the paint scraps off easily.  Anyone else see a change in there finish in the sun?
As soon as it’s in the shade it back to normal.
  I also sand the with 80 grit wet Then 120 wet to the clean glass. Then prime with a good 2k polyester primer. .
Dakazman

[EuropaTC]

I see the problem these cars have when placed in the hot direct sunlight. The paint and the glass seem to counter react to each other one expands and one contracts.  Maybe this is why they have fissures in the paint. That’s s another story. I will take some temperature measurements and post.

Drifting off topic slightly, but I'd agree there's a  problem with thermal expansion in very hot sunshine - a problem we rarely have over in the UK 

If you look at the relative expansions, polyester is relatively high compared to carbon steel or even stainless steels (https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linear-expansion-coefficients-d_95.html) but the snag is that it's not as good a conductor of heat.   So it's easy for the outer layers to get very hot whilst any thicker sections beneath, say the inner door hinge panel returns, stay cold.  That's potentially going to spoil the finish but only temporary whilst the sun is there and it'll return to normal when it gets back in the shade.

If the fibreglass is thin all over or you have our lovely English weather, it's rarely a problem 

Back on topic - in contrast, I use paint stripper and usually an old wood chisel for the outer layers and stop when I get to primer. Then I dry sand with either 60 or 80 grit production paper until the bulk is off. I don't use wet sanding on spray filler or primer coats, only when I have topcoats going on.

Brian

[Gmg31]

members might remember that I wasted a lot of time, and money, getting my car soda blasted.  It was the worse decision of my rebuild and left me with a golf ball surface.  I spent a whole year flatting it down then spraying with high build primer before flatting it down again (5 times). when she went for paint she was as near perfect as it was possible to be.  Ive been running the car now for 18 months and covered 6k miles and its seem that no matter how hard you work to get  these cars ready for paint they still flex and crack  and expand in direct sun light.  Ive got so many minor cracks and faults now you wouldn't guess it was painted less than 2 years ago.  I guess its just what we have to expect, and live with. 

[jbcollier]

Yup, had the same thing happen to me.  Cracks need to be repaired with the usual matt and blend and then you need finish by covering the entire body with a layer of veil cloth.  People who have done this report very few imperfections even many years after.

[dakazman]

 starting out at garage temp of 30.5c-86.7 in the shade paint and finish normal.  11:00 am local time.
After 1/2 hour in the direct sunlight the temp of the finish rose to 69 C -156f finish gets distorted and you really need to look for it. If just passing by you probably wouldn’t notice it.
  It also disappears after being doused with water.  Maybe with some airflow it will do the same.
Dakazman

PS at noon temps still as stated. Shady side of car perfect as is the roof  for some reason.
   

[lotusfanatic]

the thought of covering the entire car body with a layer of veil seems exceptionally daunting.... 
 

[surfguitar58]

Yup, had the same thing happen to me.  Cracks need to be repaired with the usual matt and blend and then you need finish by covering the entire body with a layer of veil cloth.  People who have done this report very few imperfections even many years after.

Would you use epoxy or polyester resin with veil cloth?
t

[EuropaTC]

the thought of covering the entire car body with a layer of veil seems exceptionally daunting.... 

I'm not convinced it's essential to cover the whole surface, I have never done that on either car and generally speaking the only cracks that reappear have done so due to impact or a poor repair on my part.  For example on my Europa there are a couple of hairline cracks immediately in front of the front bonnet and that's almost certainly down to the careful way I slipped and dropped the lid during re-assembly in 2011. Otherwise they don't usually come back if repaired properly with surface tissue/resin - in fact the ones I referred to are "new to me" because I've never seen crazing in that location before !

But if you're a professional then the one way to be certain not to get an angry customer is to resurface the entire car.  It's the nuclear option and the customer pays for the time but is rewarded with a concours finish. 

My take has been to only resurface areas where I've seen problems or done repairs. If you strip back to gelcoat and don't see any crazing on the bare fibreglass (wet wipe with thinners  or similar to highlight defects) then  I don't see any point in stripping off one good surface simply to replace it with another.

The Europa was done in 2011 and the only area of crazing is the 2/3 lines previously mentioned. The Elan was done in 2013 and had a lot more work with the doors being remodelled to fit (an S3 "feature") and deep repairs on the front wings, rear deck & boot lid,  mainly due to helpful people leaning on the rear boot lid when it was open. No, I don't understand why they did it either, but they won't do it again......   anyway, 8yrs and 6yrs on, they both still look pretty fair.

[dakazman]

  I guess I’ll just have to bring a pop up canopy to put over car. If allowed for car shows or hope for a cloudy day.
  I don’t see waves or cracks or blisters or spiders. Having primer, sealer, paint and clearcoat.
What I see is the fiberglass strands individually being pressed,...shrink wrapped by the clear coat.
 I don’t know if the veils has strands of glass fibers but I will look into this .
Dakazman