Morris Minor Owners Club

what is the best method (or the recommend method) for removing paint en-masse?

i want to get a good finish on my door when i have finished repairing the bottom and have decided a total bare metal base will get the finish i want, but i am unsure of the best method.
chemical (nitromorse)
physical (blasting, sanding)
heat (heat gun or blow torch)

Nitro mors with a scraper to carefully remove all the layers of paint, be careful not to scratch the metal though!

Then use a DA, sand with 80 grit , then 120/180 and finally 240 before priming.
Clean with panel wipe.
First primer coat should be etch primer.

John knows what he's on about... use Nitromors, it is good stuff.

Nitromors used to be good stuff,but I bought some recently and it was next to useless! It was only when I read the instructions,It said not suitable for car paintwork!The next day I looked in Halfords and they were selling exactly the same Nitromors

tried to get nitromors from my paint supplier and was told that it was now unavailable from them since there had been some health and safety(Here we go again) issues,but still seen it in motor factors,old stock maybe.

Hello Chris,

strip and clean discs on an angle grinder are very fast and leave a good surface finish. They'll also get rid of rust patches as well. Not the cheapest option, nor will they get into corners but I would say you'll strip a door to bare metal in about five to ten minutes. http://www.abrasivesformetal.co.uk/Stri ... Strip.aspx


Alec

Yes, try and get an old can of Nitromors.

These smell strongly of methylene chloride (and I think) methanol so no wonder the newer cans are not as good.

Methylene chloride and methanol in the Nitromors will remove cellulose and 2K paint quite nicely! And the gel formulation of nitromors stops these solvents from evaporating so they can get to work on the paint layers.

Sad if the newer version is no good anymore, another victim of todays nanny state!

It's good stuff but I bought a 2.5 litre tin of nitro about 8 months ago for £16, went to buy some more a couple of months later, the 2.5 litre tin is now 2 litres and £33 ! I rummaged around at the back of the shelf and found one old 2.5 litre tin left, paid for it------£16!
Be careful , they're out to get you.

That is probably correct about the quality suffering due to the chemical content, but I think we get our Nitromors from B&Q or our local ironmongers and it does an amazing job.

Anyway, I have a garage full of chemical goodies which I have collected on my travels, including Cookson's White Lead Paint (complete with warning label not to paint on toys), a WW2 tin of Black Bitumen, Rubilac, ICI Cellulose and a tin of Brushing Belco which recently exploded in my face whilst prising the lid off and has a flash point of 20 degrees Centigrade...

Such was the quality of stuff 50 years ago that the empty steel can of 1960's Pepsi-Cola we have can no way be crushed or even dented by hand.

All good stuff before the E.U. intervened.

If you want to do it the easy and quick way, blast it (or have blasted) with a soda blaster or shot blaster. Since acquiring a small blaster myself, it has saved so much time and effort, plus the media is pretty cheap. You can also blast the area that you've repaired inside the door so that it's ready for a coat of etch primer, then hopefully Zinc primer, topcoat and cavity wax.

Depending on the harshness of media that you blast it with, a go over with the DA with 120 grit before primer is good.

Hello Harvey,

"If you want to do it the easy and quick way,"

My experience is different, with a home compressor of reasonable capacity which mine is, blasting was slow and messy. Commercial blasters will be quicker but there is the well publicised danger of warping panels if the blaster is more used to heavy structures.

Nothing to beat blasting for awkward corners and crevices but it is not quick for the average home restorer.

Alec

A tip I read for using Nitromors (might have been on here, can't remember) is to stipple it on thickly then cover with clingfilm so it can't dry out and leave overnight.

As for Brushing Belco which flashes at 20 deg C. What on earth was that used for?

dp wrote:
As for Brushing Belco which flashes at 20 deg C.

Is this the stuff that moonies out the back of football coaches in the hot summer?

It was a tin of old ICI black paint which came with the car, you should have seen the ingredients. There was quite a lot of it left and it still sloshed about in the can so I thought I might aswell use it.

Well, I thought nothing of the fact that the bottom of the can had been pushed outwards by what can only have been the vapours expanding inside. So there I was prising the lid off and BANG! The lid was at the other end of the garage and this rotten stuff all over my face. A good job I wear glasses. This stuff stank like no other paint, strewth it made me feel funny even in the open air.

Hello Harvey,

"If you want to do it the easy and quick way,"

My experience is different, with a home compressor of reasonable capacity which mine is, blasting was slow and messy. Commercial blasters will be quicker but there is the well publicised danger of warping panels if the blaster is more used to heavy structures.

Nothing to beat blasting for awkward corners and crevices but it is not quick for the average home restorer.

Alec

Alec,

Yes, I agree. I can understand your point of view. It can be an awkward and expensive activity to perform- especially when your hair is covered in oil beforehand! I'll leave you to guess the outcome!

Me and my dad have one of the small canisters with wheels, I think they can be had from Frost- but we found a direct supplier from China! It was about 90 quid and will do lots of different media if you have some different nozzles for the gun. Ours runs quite happily most of the time off a small compressor, as the whole cylinder pressurises, acting like an air reservoir. If you've only one job, I suppose it's not worth it, but if you've many panels/parts to do it is great. I've found it also cleans the surrounding concrete floor very well!



Harvey

Brushing belco was a cellulose type paint that allowed you to brush on, as it did not dry too quickly. Yet unlike most brushing paint, it did not react to a subsequent respray.

les wrote:Brushing belco was a cellulose type paint that allowed you to brush on, as it did not dry too quickly. Yet unlike most brushing paint, it did not react to a subsequent respray.

Sounds interesting Les! Too many great products from the past have been banned due to spurious environmental worries.

More about this---- enter 'brushing belco' into the forum search box.

Of course, reverse engineering is possible! If the evil EU have made us take methylene chloride out of Nitromors, then luckily, Ebay allows us to buy methylene chloride by the 500ml bottle so we can put it back and get to paint stripping again!

[quote][/quoteIf the evil EU have made us take methylene chloride out of Nitromors] That probably why my usual paint suppliers said they coul'nt get it anymore