I've got a set of louvers that I want to refurbish, whether by painting, or possibly powdercoating, I haven't decided yet.

Does anyone have any easy, rapid, but non-bank-busting methods for removing the old, oxidized finish from what essentially is a collection of 1/8'' thick aluminum slats without wrecking the basic smoothness of the aluminum?

I have a small compresssor, but no experience with or equipment for the various types of blasting systems. I hesitate to turn my oscillating sander loose on them because I don't want to "swirl" them up, and paint stripper doesn't seem to get any traction on them. The current finish seems to be old paint over original anodizing which has become quite pitted from age. Paint stripper gets the old paint but not the base finish, which kind of makes it a waste of effort.

As a sidenote, if I plan on having them powder-coated, what level of stripping is required first?

Educate me, folks.

 

Personally: scotchbrite pads on a sander or likeness, then use a really fine grit to smooth out the swirls then prime and paint. I've never had issues with sanding through old paint and rust too bare aluminum and even with the swirls, once you prime it, it should fill in.

 

last time i did one, i just scuffed it up with one of those block scotchbrite pads. i didn't take it to bare metal though.

with powder coating you'd think it would get bead blasted, but our "shop" is behind a powder coater, and if its big, there is a guy out there with a grinder. powder coating is paint that later gets heated to like 350-400F, so anything that can take that kind of heat is fine.

with the louvers you also might want to hit the rivets with a hammer and dolly, they get loose and rattle

 

What kind of stripper are you using? I have been working on restoring a Porsche 912 and using Jasco stripper.

http://www.wmbarr.com/product.aspx?catid=102&prodid=209

It even lays waste to epoxy paints. I bought a quart at Home Depot for about $7.

Another alternative might be old brake fluid. I have used that before.

 

+1 on the brillo pad. I use brillo pads on sanders often. also - if you have air tools they make these handy little pads that're basically soft brillo pads - normally used to clean parts to bare metal.

i need to do my louvers, also. some of my rivets are missing too.

 

Aircraft Paint Remover. Works really well. Doens't screw up the aluminum.
Put it on, nice and thick. Wait 30 minutes. Hose off. At least 80% of it will come off in the first try.

 

I used this on my whole car. You can actually see it burning the paint off...like the paint sizzles off haha it's pretty sick. I went ahead and scraped it off though with a plastic scraper...and got it all over myself. That **** burns within like 5 seconds of skin contact haha

 

yup, aircraft remover works good. paint wise, a nice coat of primer and either a low to medium gloss high temp or satin bbq grill paint. I'm not a fan of high gloss paint as I like them to match with other black trims.

 

I'll also vote for aircraft remover, or some similar paint stripper. Walmart/Lowes/Home Depot all sell stuff that works great.

 

The Aircraft remover is what I've been using. The label always makes me laugh, thinking about using it to remove aircraft from my windshield - - yah, I know, I'm odd. One of my primary chemical tools.

It's loosened up some of the old paint, and happily melted the plastic scraper I was using, but it won't touch the base coating, so it must be anodizing. But it's pretty pitted up. I can feel the texture of the pits. Not sure what happened to these in the past.

I've already tightened up the rivets, and have replaced a half-dozen or so that were too far gone to just dolly back into shape. Much firmer now. I've also removed all the foam and plastic bits, including the hollow side molding. I figured if I do go powdercoat (I figured it would be more durable with regard to weathering) then the plastic would have to come off so they can bake it.

I guess scotchbrites on the jitterbug is the next step. Ought to be noisy as hell.

Definitely going low-gloss satin black. Like Wacky, I like to match up my outside trim. If I don't powder-coat them, I'll probably use the Duplicolor Trim Black that I've used on the other outside trim. Stuff looks great, and lasts a long, long time. One of the best restoration products I've found.

 

Glad i'm not the only one that thinks the label and name "aircraft remover" is really funny.

If that isn't removing the basecoat then its probably not paint, that stuff does a good job of eating away basically anything, if left for a while it even starts eating bondo..

 

I'm planning on doing this soon. I was thinking of using eastwood's trim paint on the louvers and window trim.

http://www.eastwood.com/trim-paint-a...rimer-kit.html

 

Xlnt, Chris; we can compare results!