Technical How to remove spray paint from car?

I'm very surprised to see folks recommending oven cleaner. That stuff is very caustic. I've used it for years to strip paint off of built model cars. Makes a huge mess, and always strips off ALL the paint. You might have good results without stripping that factory baked-on finish, but personally I would suggest using it in an inconspicuous area first.

I think you'd have good results removing that spray paint with WD-40. Of course it will make it really difficult to get anything else to stick in the near future

 

Easy off and scotch pad will do it. I've done it before. Get the can with yellow top. Spray it on, let sit for 10 minutes and scrub it with pad and water hose. IF it came outta a spray can, Easy Off will remove it.

 

That thing is like a naked 300 pound fat girl with hairy legs and missing teeth....No matter how hard you try, you can never un-see it.

 

That car just needs to be taken apart and painted. If it was only the outside or a couple panels it'd be one thing but there's no turning back now.

Do your own disassembly and prep then have Maaco shoot it.

Call it done.

 

Worst part there is zero body rust anywhere at all since it was garaged, however found out he slapped bondo over the faded paint so the spray can crap would have a better gripping surface.

Not only am I going to have to probably sandblast, first I have to sand off two inch thick bondo coated all across the doors and fenders.

The original owner rebuilt the entire engine and then sold it to the guy who butchered it, fresh engine still inside so definitely want to save this puppy.

 

YeH the Pimp that owns that bird may pay you a visit; you may end up working for him! LOL. I had a daily driver "tagged" by a local a-hole as well as a neighbours. I removed the stay bomb paint with a single wipe. Washed and waxed afterwards. The neighbour knew better and used lacquer thinner. Needed a re-spray and since he had already messed with it insurance was denied.

 

Trunk lock is missing...

haven't tried looking inside yet!

 

SOMEBODY GIT A ROPE !!!

 

I have used the easy off method on a spray bombed truck, it removed the spray bomb color like cleaning glass, just sprayed it on waited and sprayed it off with a garden hose, my ONLY regret was that there was some 70's one-shot graphics hidden under the spray bomb and it removed almost all of those too, left just enough for me to regret it. sanding would have obliterated them too though so it was a fait accompli

it didnt even touch the factory color.

my additional advice is to do it in the gravel or grass, the removed paint sticks pretty good to concrete. you want the original stuff, NOT FUME FREE

 

By the color code I'm looking at, the original color underneath was Pagoda Green.

 

I have washed rattle can paint off with gas on a rag. Fully painted Model A roadster that my 2 year old son thought he would help Dad out I guess. Black rattle can on white paint. Every bit of it washed off without hurting the white paint.

Dave

 

A DA and some 80 grit would take that paint right off. LOL

I may try some MEK and a rag, it shouldn't hurt the original paint at all and should remove the top coat easy enough.

 

Wow man. That's a really charp chort. Nedds one of those carpet tops to finish it off real nice-like.

 

I did exactly what you want to do to a 51 ford I had. Some one had painted the whole thing with rustolium satin black. But they did not paint the door jambs and it had a real nice deep burgundy metallic in the jambs. It was a pain in the ass to get it off and took the better part of 2 weeks but it did come off and looked pretty good after buffing.

I would not use the oven cleaner, mostly because you don't know what was done to the base paint before it was spray bombed. if it was scuffed with a corse paper the oven clean can soak into the OG paint and cause more problems.

The process I used went like this....First scuff the whole car up with 220 grit paper to cut all the sheen off the paint. after completely scuffed. then i used the large scotch brite pads (grey ones) soaked with lacquer thinner and scuffed till all the old paint was almost gone. once the offending color was nearly completely removed, I buffed the rest off with compound and then went over the whole car with polishing glaze. you wont have a perfect paint job but it will look a hell of a lot better. test it out in a small spot, but with this method you should be able to get one panel done a day.

the other time consuming safe option would be to buy a ton of wet / dry sand paper, get a bucket of water and start sanding. you will get through it all eventually. just be careful of body lines and edges. then buff it all out.

 

easy off, goof off, car wash, fine cut compound and a buffer, 600 grit and a buffer.
Pick your poison, gonna be time consuming no matter what.

 

Wedding car?

 

Another option is to bust it down for parts. Somebody out there wants a hood, fender, glass window, drive train, engine bits and a hundred other things. Paint won't matter to someone who it going down to bare metal anyway. You got it for free so it's all gravy. You might ride that 'bird a long way, to a sack of cash, for another project with a whole lot less heartache.

 

I'm just going to add easy off again. There is a whole thread that is huge on a VW website with testimony after testimony and pics to prove it as well as technique.

Read here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76072

 

Easy off oven cleaner.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

I have unintentionally taken sprayed on paint like that off cabinets with Zep Big Orange industrial cleaner. I went to take some greasy hand prints off a cabinet and ended up taking off the sprayed on paint that was over the original finish. Not caustic like Oven cleaner.

 

Okay, think I'm going to try Acetone/Laquer on a rag after sanding a small area and see what happens.

If nothing, I will give Easy Off a try. It all experimental it sounds, I will post results soon...

 

I honestly would it it didn't run, but really if I just manage to get the paint off it's a real great example with a complete restored engine that runs.

If I have to I'll sandblast it with crushed glass, these models are getting more rare by the year and would hate to see it torn up. I am determined!

 

man. if nothing previously posted doesn't work... just live with it. unless you do a total repaint... just let it ride. at many points it will look 'dissresedly' cool.

 

I would get some easy off ...and then hold a lighter in front of it.

 

Couldn't even be bothered to slip a little newspaper under the wiper arms when they painted them....nice. LOL Looking forward to how this comes out. I have an old coke cooler that I bought cheap in good shape, but spray painted baby blue. Hoping I can get the spray paint off somehow and save the original red underneath it.

 

Why don't you try Easy-Off? Seems like I heard about that somewhere.

 

Dear God, that's even worse than the paint job!

 

Since the last owner showed the car so much love ,do you think he maintained that rebuild motor?

 

Rub on it with a rag soaked in gasolene.

 

I hand flatted with soapy water and different grades of paper starting with 360 grade down to 1000 the matt black off my Edsel back to the white below, a long job but got great results and did not damage the paint below