Does anyone know if there is a stripper on the market that works or have the tree huggers successfully killed the product. I recently bought two different home center brands that used to work great. Am stripping some furniture for refinishing. Neither brand rose a sign of a blister on the old enamel, just barely softened it enough to allow removal with heavy scraping with a putty knife. The couple hour job ended up taking all day and then some. Kind of expected a bit more @ $55/gallon. Last stripping job I did was my grandson's '59 El Camino about 10 years ago and the cheapest remover blistered and liquified 3 or 4 layers of old auto enamel in one application so it wiped off with a shop towel.
I've had the same results that you have had. I had to strip some of the sheet metal for my Morris Minor woody and I found that the Kleen-Strip stuff from the local hardware store only took off one layer at a time (barely) and dried up too fast. Same result with the famous "Aircraft stripper". I used some oven cleaner and it did well on some areas but didn't touch factory applied paint. I guess that's why so many opt for media blasting with car parts, there's something to be said for, "drop it off, pick it up later and hand over the cash". Me, I'm too far away to avail myself so I just keep brushing and scraping.....
After applying the stripper, throw a piece of plastic sheeting over it. Keeps the fumes in and works a little better. But yeah, the new stuff sucks.
I use Jasco premium paint and epoxy remover....works for me. I've even used it on some powder coat to strip some Harley wheels...worked for me. http://www.jasco-help.com/product/premium-paint-epoxy-remover
The Jasco Epoxy remover was the bomb in the day. That was 15 years ago. I even stripped gold powder coating off Pontiac Trans Am honeycomb wheels easily. Not any longer. That's the stuff I tried this week and it might as be lemon Jello. I am taking most of the can back to Home Depot to get my $55 back. The Strip Eze (I think that's the brand, blue can) stuff at least slightly softens the top layer of paint.
It's long gone. It all sucks now. I've tried all of the tricks, run a DA with 80 grit over it, cover it with plastic, e.t.c... it just doesn't work without the methylene chloride in it. Went from a professional product to a joke.
Ingredients shown in MSDS http://www.jasco-help.com/uploads/documents/4015_34E_Jasco_Premium_Paint_and_Epoxy_Remover.pdf
It actually states on the MSDS that its intended use is to remove contact cement. Says nothing about epoxy or even enamel paint. False advertising if I ever saw it. Lacquer thinner removes contact cement better than anything.
you might just need to cover and let it sit for many hours....that seems to be how the new ones work, from the little I've read about them. Good thing I've given up doing paint/body work, because I sure loved the old paint stripper.
https://www.amazon.com/methylene-chloride-solvent/s?k=methylene+chloride+solvent Just mix it with what you have.
Doe's anyone know why this brand is no longer made?? Buddy had a couple cans, Stuff worked Amazing... Which tells me it's gotta be EPA or some other branch of for our own good..
Pretty much anything with methylene chloride will work well, and will be hard or impossible to find for sale today. It's a rather nasty chemical, it has killed people and caused neurological damage to folks who used it carelessly. Look at the ingredients on any can of stripper you plan to buy...if it doesn't have the magic ingredient, it won't work very well.
Done a lot of paint stripping. Started when I was a kid. Mostly paint from furniture and woodwork. Recently tried citrusstrip for some small stuff on my 55. I gotta say, it works. But much, much more slowly than the product I was use to 30 years ago. I'm 42 btw. I like it because it doesn't dry out. Gotta apply it very generously and let it sit forever, but eventually it peels the paint right off. I got a face full of the "good stuff" when I was 15. Lucky to not be scared. My beards a little thinner on the side that got the worst of it. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
That stuff was the best, stripped a heavy metalflake covered factory paint off my old Corvette down to bare fiberglass.
I really hate even being reminded of this. Paint stripper used to be the way I stripped everything. The new stuff isn’t worth messing with as best I can tell. Maybe burning a hole through a girl friends foot back in high school when I dripped some on her accidentally as I was stripping a car ruined it for all of us?