Strip the paint and go aluminium and carbon?

[10uptobase]

Paint is badly chipped and have been trying to work out where to get respray, what colour, how much to strip the car etc etc.  Then saw the new superlight twenty pictures and liked very much the ali / carbon look.  I think it may even work out cheaper!

A few questions then arose:

How to get the paint etch primer off and polish the aluminium (I quite like the satin rather than high polish look btw)

Should I leave any of the current black paint on? (inner of rear arches and under the lower chassis rails where the body wraps under. Leave the scuttle on when stripping???)  Thought is will protect the areas difficult to clean?

Best way to get the bonnet catches etc off. (drill out rivets?)

How to maintain the ali after the paint is removed (I’m not a big fan of polishing! The car does a fair bit of touring as well as blats…)

Where is best for the carbon.  (CC prices are high compared to MOG etc, but who does the best finished F&R wings and nose and what coating should be applied to the carbon to protect it?

Anyone have a similar experience?

ta

[John Vine]

I suspect you're going to find it extremely difficult to remove the etch primer.  Sanding will be very hard work and the majority of paint strippers will be ineffective.  One possibility might be to consult a supplier of aviation-grade stripper.  Beware that such strippers could well contain dichloromethane (methylene chloride) -- this represents a considerable hazard and will require extensive safety precautions. 

Personally, I wouldn't even consider going down either route.  Maybe a respray in silver instead?

JV

[Paul McKenzie]

Not in a million years   You'd be better off having it repanelled at Arch if that's what you want, and I'll bet that will cost you less ..and keep you sane.

[Jim 123]

I support what John and Paul have said.  The feasibilty of going from painted to bare Al is difficult.

If you do want to progress that route, Rust Oleum Aviation Paint Stripper is probably most appropriate.  I would attempt proof of concept with the bonnet as a suggestion.

A repaint opens up all sorts of creative posibilities.  Whilst they are a fair distance from where you are based, my strong vote would be to get your car to TSK in Erith.  They would have painted the car originally.

[Surreptitious]

There was a fairly recent Face Book thread about doing precisely what you ask. Result looks very successful - done a couple of years ago from an all red 7.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/CaterhamTechTalk/permalink/1713186482246754/   .

[David Mirylees]

I know the owner who has done this (on the FB site). This is what he did:

"Removing Paint from Caterham:

Note that what was done was done mainly through 'gut-feel' from years of experience in Aerospace which stood the owner in pretty good stead.

Paint stripper, but beware some of the ‘modern healthy’ options are more like polish than paint strippers. In the end used Nitromoors. A cheap flat wooden spoon was purchased then the end shaped to be like a broad wooden chisel enough to get under the paint but being wooden was much less likely to damage the aluminium. Then plenty of time to do the job carefully and thoroughly. Also made sure there were good covers/troughs under where working to catch anything that fell and the water used to rinse of the paint stripper.

Then hand rubbed down the aluminium starting with, probably, 180/240 grit. (Obviously anything rough will produce deep scratches in the ally). Worked up through the grades to something ridiculously fine. The last ones being on a rotary polisher – trizact was brand name of the polishing pads – and probably used small amount of WD40/silicone spray to lubricate and prevent heating the ally up too much..

After that, went through the Nuvite grades (G6, C, S) with a polisher. Found that mechanical polishing of the bonnet produces some bounce and thus struggled to get the result I wanted with machines. Eventually made up a buck for the bonnet so polishing could be completed off car. 

For the other panels placed microfibre cloth onto orbital sander (not rotary!!) for polishing Nuvite.

Nowadays it’s all by hand. 

Best not to go circular with hand polishing."

Hope this helps.

 

[John Vine]

Nitromoors

Presumably this was the earlier, muscular version that contained dichloromethane -- before Brussels got at it?

JV

[Paul McKenzie]

Yes, the modern Nitromors wouldn't strip the skin off a rice pud

[solstice]

I have been considing this for some time, have spoken to several people who have advised against it, I will probably go for silver paint, I've seen a few finishes which aren't a million miles away from looking like bare aluminium.

[David Mirylees]

...and there's always the option of wrapping.  A local owner now has an academy car which is wrapped in white and it's pretty well perfect - including the louvres.  (A full wrap would probably cost circa £800)

[Jonathan Kay]

You can freely buy dichloromethane in the required amounts.

Jonathan

[RogW]

My 2 previous 7's were both painted - but I have to say I do like the bare Ali and carbon on my recent aquisition . . .

http://jumblecards.co.uk/720151102-IMG_5647.jpg

[10uptobase]

Thanks all. It's beginning to sound like far more work than the respray...! Will think again.