Chemically stripped my fenders, almost died. Learning experience.

[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

[bodyperson]

What nobody seemed to notice is that flyboy01 used lacquer thinner to remove the stripper. Water  is the approved method. The lacquer thinner is as much to blame as anything for the symptoms. NOW: aircraft stripper with the red stripe requires a wipe down with mineral spirits  either way fresh air is your friend. get a fan and blow that stuff out of your face. Same goes with sanding and welding. Cutting the paint with some aggressive  sanding like 80# or 36# if the paint is really thick helps the process along with covering it with plastic. And keep it out of direct sunlight. The idea is to keep it wet as long as you can but not too cold. Also don't mess with it. Wipe it on heavy and leave it alone.. Bodyperson

[flyboy01]

No, I didn't wipe it down with Laquer Thinner, I used it with a scotch-brite pad to scrub the rest of the paint and residue off, dipped in laquer thinner, it worked well on the already softened paint. When i was done, i wiped the panels down with metal-prep.

BTW, here is an update.