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Chrome strips and removing paint.

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W

Wilks

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My chrome strips are rather dinged up and not in very good condition. How do I remove them? Also, what is the best way to remove paint from a car? I would like to take the paint off myself if I can save money at a bodyshop. Would you reccommend this, or just let a professional do it?
 
At each end of each chrome strip, there is a fastener which can be loosened from behind the panel. The rest of the fasteners are simply snaps which can be removed by pulling the strip away carefully. You may need to use a padded screwdriver or flat piece of plastic to pry it away.
 
Stripping paint is a bad way to save money. Most of the solvents are of the category that if the EPA found out you were using them, you'd be sharing a cell with Martha Stewart, but sufficiently high that you might actually enjoy it. Reputable body shops have the ventilation and means of treating waste chemicals. Disreputable one's don't but someone else will be carted off to jail higher than a kite.
 
Ok thanks about the info on the paint. With that chrome strip fastener, can you reach it from the wheel well?
 
The fastener for the door strips is in the middle of the door, not on the end. The fastener for the rear strip can be found inside the trunk and the one fot the front strip is tucked in behind the headlight bucket. I buzzed my "B" just about down to the bare metal with a "DA" air sander using #80 grit, but it was a long tedious job (several layers of paint). Bob
 
I'll add my two cents worth -
I scrounged a couple of decent fenders and a valence assembly out of a junkyard and took them to the local "media blaster" - Apparently "Sand Blasting" is not politically correct anymore - He charged me twenty bucks to strip all three pieces and no skin off my knuckles - He was in the process of stripping a complete 48 Chevy pickup truck - that was really neat - He quoted me about $200.00 to strip my entire Sprite including the underbody, wheel wells, etc. - That's if I strip it down to nothing but the body shell - I don't know if I'm going that far on this one.

I'm sure you have "Media Blasters" in your area - Give em' a yell - I agree with the guys about not using stripper - Methylene Chloride is some nasty stuff indeed.

Bob M.
 
Bare in mind that media blasting does not take off rust or grease deposits. Also, you have to scuff the metal afterwards to get the paint to stick. That being said, (so there are no surprises when it is finished), it is a great way to go.
 
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