There I was with three strippers

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Now that I have your attention here is my 170s bare cowl to boot.

So far with about 30 man hours, Leroy and I have stripped both doors, windows and cowl. We've also replaced the door windows with new acrylic, removed repaired, painted and reinstalled the door handles and mechanisms. I spent 9 hours on the cowl alone.

And now for the strippers.

I tried the CitriStrip $19 1/2 gal at Lowes.

CitriStrip.jpg (19.66 KiB) Viewed 12714 times

It apparently works in California if you apply it and go to the beach for the rest of the day. Return the next and remove the paint. I didn't have time and I don't have a beach near by.

Moved on to the Crown Tuff-Strip also from Lowes for $29 gallon.

Tuff-Strip.jpg (58.73 KiB) Viewed 12714 times

This worked pretty well except on the stuborn GREEN paint. It did soften it and even bubbled it in places but it was a struggle to get it off. I thought perhaps a different product would work better and so I bought Aircraft paint remover from the local Advance Auto.

Aircraft stripper.jpeg (63.47 KiB) Viewed 12714 times

Ironically the can says not to be used on aircraft. I thought it would be perfect. Turns out it worked pretty well cutting right through the GREEN paint, the white base coat under it, the cream coat from the first paint job and what I think was the remnants of the original primer.

All the above strippers are neutralized and clean up with water.

Now for repairs to the cowl. Then on to the rest of the fuselage.

[Slowlowflyer]

I use a stripper called "plane naked". It is about 160$ for 5 gallons shipped to your door. Clean the plane, spray it on, leave for 24 hrs, get the power washer out and wash 90% of the paint off. Do it all again and the next day it is completely stripped. The last 180 cessna I did took about 8 hrs of actual labor and 8 gallons of stripper. Will never use anything else again.

[ghostflyer]

I have used the top 2 strippers that Bruce have used but they haven't taken enough off , so have used Certified Coatings and a rub down with MEK with Scotchbrite and the hard bits removed with a hardwood scraper. The Citrus based stripper is totally useless ,it makes a good mess AND do not leave it in the sun to work as it dries to a jelly like substance and will not wash off easily without MEK. One has to be carefully about using strippers due to their caustic makeup. It will attack the alumium .

[GAHorn]

Yeah....no matter what you use that GREEN paint is even slow to strip. (why do I have the feeling Bruce is actually setting me up for something by high-lighting how resistant GREEN is???)

[ak2711c]

You may already know this trick but with the "Aircraft paint stripper" if you apply it generously to the surface to be stripped and then cover it with plastic while you wait for it to blister up you will find it works even better. Also it works much better if it is in a room that is a minimum of 70 degrees. Its still a lot of work though.
I have not tried the "Plane Naked" stipper though. I am curious to try it now.
Shawn

[wingnut]

Bruce, you gotta be violating several home owner association rules

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Bruce, you gotta be violating several home owner association rules

No I'm not Del. I personally would find it hard to live where there was a home owner association. They wouldn't have put up with my crazy Lab dog who would chase trucks from on property line to the other (my property is borders on two side by roads), they wouldn't put up with my Cub being stored in my yard for two years. I'm known as the guy with the nutty dog and the airplane in his yard though neither have been there for nearly 10 years.

As for the chemicals well I'm vacuuming up the paint chips and most of the water used to rinse the parts after, evaporates on my paved drive way. Now when we get to the fuselage we will be doing that at the private airport it's kept on. The airport owner has a home owner association of one. He decides what happens on his property and he has told us to let the paint chips lay where they fall. We're going to be a little more careful than that.

But joke or not Del your right, it does take a little more thought than just grabbing a gallon of stripper and painting the airplane with it.

[edbooth]

Hey Bruce what are you going to repaint with??? how about couple cases of Krylon ? Get a bunch of neighbors and a case of beer and you could be done on a Saturday afternoon. I was noticing in Wal-mart that there are several nice shades of green.

[GAHorn]

25 years ago I helped a friend "pre-buy" a (wildly mis-represented) 170 he was interested in.... in eastern GA which was painted with a roller-brush in sorta-RED SEARS LATEX ! (We got-away from it FAST!)

If you choose that, try to use sponge-rubber brushes instead...it's got to turn out better than that thing did!

(We didn't even try ....but a compression-check on that owner's "perfect plane" would have been impossible....the spark plugs looked like the rusticles hanging from the Titanic.)

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Hey Bruce what are you going to repaint with???

For the moment we are going natural with white wings, vertical stab and elevator. (We aren't strippng the wings, vertical stab and elevator. )

Of course our registration number will be GREEN.

[wingnut]

Bruce, you gotta be violating several home owner association rules

No I'm not Del. I personally would find it hard to live where there was a home owner association. They wouldn't have put up with my crazy Lab dog who would chase trucks from on property line to the other (my property is borders on two side by roads), they wouldn't put up with my Cub being stored in my yard for two years. I'm known as the guy with the nutty dog and the airplane in his yard though neither have been there for nearly 10 years.

As for the chemicals well I'm vacuuming up the paint chips and most of the water used to rinse the parts after, evaporates on my paved drive way. Now when we get to the fuselage we will be doing that at the private airport it's kept on. The airport owner has a home owner association of one. He decides what happens on his property and he has told us to let the paint chips lay where they fall. We're going to be a little more careful than that.

But joke or not Del your right, it does take a little more thought than just grabbing a gallon of stripper and painting the airplane with it.

I was joking Bruce. I have only heard of homeowner associations in the news. But I'm glad you clarified that you are known as the neighborhood freak. Now we have something in common. For some reason, I imagined being your neighbor for a minute, driving by and seeing that contraption. You must get some curious onlookers. Your next door neighbor wouldn't be a Drysdale would it??

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

But I'm glad you clarified that you are known as the neighborhood freak.

Hmmm well Del you would have to know my neighbors cause even with an airplane in the yard, I'm pretty normal when compared. The minute they get upset with me I'll stop plowing their driveways and fixing their lawn mowers and string trimmers.

[wingnut]

But I'm glad you clarified that you are known as the neighborhood freak.

Hmmm well Del you would have to know my neighbors cause even with an airplane in the yard, I'm pretty normal when compared. The minute they get upset with me I'll stop plowing their driveways and fixing their lawn mowers and string trimmers.

So you are the Clampett of the neighborhood??? Yes? That is compliment Bruce. I guess southern humor is foreign. I'll stop and apologize for being the stick in the spokes.

[johneeb]

[....................
I was joking Bruce. I have only heard of homeowner associations in the news. But I'm glad you clarified that you are known as the neighborhood freak. Now we have something in common. For some reason, I imagined being your neighbor for a minute, driving by and seeing that contraption. You must get some curious onlookers. Your next door neighbor wouldn't be a Drysdale would it??

Del, have any of the Drysdale's been allowed out of Arkansas Oh no that's right they are all in Hollywood with the "Oil Barons

[ghostflyer]

I have this clown that lives next door to me and dobbed me into the local authorities because I had my 170on the front lawn with the wings removed . He ranted that I had thousands of gallons of AVGAS stored in the wings. When the city officer turned up I showed him my empty tanks and holding only 130litres when full. He complained again and again about my aircraft.we were waiting for space in the hangar so we could put it back together.