Chemically stripped my fenders, almost died. Learning experience.

[flyboy01]

Monday's project was stripping the front fenders, I bought a can of Aircraft Stripper, some paint brushes, and had a lot of fun.

Not actually that bad, just messy, and I had to wear double nitrile gloves to keep my hands from burning. I wore a repirator for the first 30 minutes, but took it off because of the heat. (92F and humid) After I finished scraping, after 4 applications, I had all the paint, primer, and filler off. I washed the fender down with a scotchbrite pad and laquer thinner. I now have to fill in all the little dents and prime it. Total work time, 3 hours.

The bad. It was just one fender, but toward the end I was starting to get a bit of a headache, I just didn't have the energy to do the second fender. I went in the house to cool down figuring I was just overheated. It went downhill from there. I started getting flushed, there were dark circles under my eyes, it felt like I had a blood vessel pop in my head, and I had really bad arm and leg cramps. What happened? It turns out that Aircraft paint stripper is some real nasty stuff. Whats in it? METHYLENE CHLORIDE. Its vapor is toxic, flamable, and forms hydrogen chloride. It can case fluid buildup in the lungs, nervous system depression, brain damage, etc..., and that is from breating it. Shin contact is a whole different story, even the vapor can burn your skin! WHat happened to me is I had about 3 hours exposure which cause some of these, basically, its like having a very bad case of carbon monoxide poisoning, I am finally feeling better today, after 3 days. I learned my lesson, wear a respirator!
 

 

[BBLM23]

 

[68fish]

Glad you mentioned that Flyboy! I've got a gallon can of that stuff that I haven't opened yet. Looks Like I'll be using it outside with a respirator.

[NYFDFF]

Man you got lucky you quit when you did  Thanx for the heads up on this stuff

[CudaDon65]

Fly glad you're ok. The work on the fender looks good. 

[flyboy01]

Yup, gonna do the next one outside. 

[MVRCorp]

Your lucky.....read the label next time. Definetly a outside project with the wind blowing!

[Megajoltman]

Your lucky.....read the label next time. Definetly a outside project with the wind blowing!

I agree

[loiq]

Stripped a lot of stuff, never had that problem, but I use it outside.

Aircraft stripper takes body filler out too.

[eldubb440]

nasty stuff, but it works great. id rather strip than sand. works great on undercoat too.......outside is best, but keep it out of the sun.  it dries it up

[jamesdart]

i dont like chemical strippers. nasty. my favorite is the stripping wheels on a grinder.  you should be able to do a fender in about an hour and depending how much paint there is, 1 wheel should do one fender.

[automan63]

I hope your wearing glasses too. Stripper in the eye is a nasty experience, it'll burn your cornea before you can get to rinse it out. Makes a welding flash seem like a walk in the park.

J.

[ski]

I hope your wearing glasses too. Stripper in the eye is a nasty experience, it'll burn your cornea before you can get to rinse it out. Makes a welding flash seem like a walk in the park.

J.

   I used it alot in my early days in the Navy.  We always used it outside and wore rubber gloves and goggles but it still irritated the eyes badly after a while.  Later we went to a full body suit with a remote fed respirator but it's not used much at the operational level anymore.  Ours was a dark mustard color and would burn skin on contact.  Very nasty stuff but stripped metal like nobody's business. 

[flyboy01]

This stuff has been labeled "does not meet military standards." I will say, it does work very well, but I would not do a whole car with it, just the two front fenders. I am going to do the other fender with it, but thankfully, its the last panel before I paint! It is cool to see a bare metal fender, and the cost (besides my health) is quite low. $9 for quart, which was enough to do two fenders.

[MyCreation68]

hey flyboy good to see yur ok. So how much do you think you have into the dart so far in supplies?

[75Dart440]

Just a heads up for anybody who might be using this stuff in an attached garage:  The fumes CAN get into your house if you use it in your garage, especially garages that have a heating supply vent to them from the home's furnace.  I have always used it outside with no problems.

Not a good feeling knowing your lungs are filling with mucous is it!! 

[dangerdawg]

glad you are o k .

[flyboy01]

Just a heads up for anybody who might be using this stuff in an attached garage:  The fumes CAN get into your house if you use it in your garage, especially garages that have a heating supply vent to them from the home's furnace.  I have always used it outside with no problems.

Not a good feeling knowing your lungs are filling with mucous is it!! 

 
no..."cough cough" ...its not.

I still got a residual headache that is barely noticable, but feeling a lot better. The thing is, every label on every chemical always warn the same death, doom, and destruction, but I guess these guys are serious. They should put a big skull and crossbones right on the front of the can. ANotother irony is that the compant that makes the stuff is called Safety Kleen. 

[Sixpak]

The stuff works but the fumes are killer. One way to minimize the fumes and help make the stripper work better is to lay it on and then cover it with a plastic trash bag. It helps to keep the methylene chloride from evaporating off, and keeps it on the paint. Just douse the part real well, wrap with a trash bag, and leave it sit out of the sun for a few hours and let it work under the trash bag.

[oldkimmer]

Glad ur ok, u do great work........there is a saying.........long time dumb, short time smart, u learned a valuable lesson.......thanks for passing it along......kim.........

[flyboy01]

Lets see how good a lesson I learned, I am going out to do the other fender right now.

[moparsky]

Hey FlyBoy01, Are you still with us ?

Do hope & pray you wore your mask & several pairs of gloves !

[71 demon child]

One time we were using stripper at work to strip a paint booth floor.We had about 6 gallons of it spread out on the floor pushing it around with  squeedgies.Just about then are supervisor came in and started running his mouth about this and that and blah blah blah.Well needless to say he went too far and stepped in it.Boy he went sailing.He managed to do a couple gymnastic moves before completetly falling in the stripper.I'm sorry but that was the funniest thing i've ever seen.He was covered head to toe.He had to take a bath in the shop bathroom sink.

[flyboy01]

Yup, still alive, I used protective gear and I feel OK. Got the fender stripped, but ended up helping a buddy install Caltracs on his Ram, so I did not get much done on my car this weekend. Its not very often that stuff installs exactly as it should, but that stuff did. Caltracs has to get an award for ease of installation.

[73ChargerSE]

Haha, makes me wonder about when I was in auto shop in high school 2 1/2 years ago. We used that stripper on a '48 Buick convertible INSIDE the shop and WITHOUT masks.  Stuff sure does burn you when it gets on you.

[flyboy01]

Ventilation was probably better because most shops had tall ceilings. My garage was just to small and enclosed.

[67 dartgts]

Sorry to hear of your trouble with the stripper, thank goodness you are alright,and a valuable lesson for all of us.
One comment I might make here.
I asked my painter if I should strip to bare metal for the paint on my race car.  His response was "why its been on there for 40 years without falliing off, it's not gonna come off now.  Besides it's a better base than bare metal."
 
   Maynard

[eldubb440]

"why its been on there for 40 years without falliing off, it's not gonna come off now.  Besides it's a better base than bare metal."
 
   

if its original paint, maybe......but most times you are dealing with multiple layers of crap

[flyboy01]

I left the original paint on most of the rest of the car, but the front fenders had a bit of work on them, and the driver's fender was swapped at one time, so I wanted to see what I was dealing with. Now that they are stripped, I am going fix old, previously repaired surface rust, and a bunch of small dings and dents. I also had a fatigue crack from the edge to a bolt hole that needed to be welded up. I will begin the bodywork this weekend, hopefully they will be done sson, they are the last two parts before paint.

[Ryan (Strange246)]

The respirator and ventilation are important, but eye protection with this crap is a must, it also contains Methyl Ethyl Ketone (spelling might not be right) which will permanently blind you if you get enough of it in your eyes! I look like I'm working with nukes when I use it, goggles, respirator, heavy rubber gloves, apron the works, I even keep the garden hose at my feet just in case...Nasty stuff, but works better and faster than a stripping wheel or sanding...However seems odd to rinse bare metal with water

Ryan

[illfish]

Where do you get this devilish potion.>

[67Satty]

I asked my painter if I should strip to bare metal for the paint on my race car.  His response was "why its been on there for 40 years without falliing off, it's not gonna come off now.  Besides it's a better base than bare metal."

That's pretty much what I was taught in a bodywork class I took a few years ago.  They said there's no need to take it down to bare metal when you are just going to be spraying primer/sealer over everything anyway.  And this teacher was a real fussy about every little detail.  But yeah, I could see stripping it all the way down if you really had to get through multiple layers of paint and body filler to see what's really going on under there, but otherwise probably better to just sand, primer, and paint. 

Another trick to get old filler/Bondo off is just heat it up with a torch, then it just scrapes right off. 

I prefer mechanical methods over chemical methods whenever possible but there's also some pretty low-odor, safe strippers you can get at Home Depot that I've used indoors on cabinets and outdoors on motorcycle tanks with no ill effects as long as you wear thick rubber gloves.  I had a brother-in-law die of cancer at age 42 after spending 20 some years messing around doing bodywork and paint on cars and motorcycles so I'm pretty chicken with this stuff.

[demon340v]

when my dad used ti he did the roadrunner outside he completly took it all down to metal adn built it back up.

I want to do it to my car but eh since i got the truck now maybe i can do a body panel at a time. who knows.

My respirator is a Military gas mask, that thing can stop alot of stuff