Cleaning up intercooler piping
 

Hey guys, I was wondering how you would recommend removing the paint that is currently on my intercooler piping (it's black, and cracking/peeling). I found a place in town that will sand blast them for less than $60, but if I can do it myself that would be cool. I was thinking of using a real coarse sand paper, but I don't want to break stuff lol. I don't know much about metal, so could there be an adverse affects to hand sanding the paint off?

If you don't have a blaster or a grinder you'll spend more of your own time than $60 worth. IMHO just send them off to get blasted.

I have a grinder... I have a wheel grinder, and a couple hand held ones too. I didn't even think about using them, how would I go about using them on the oddly shaped/bent pipes?

What do you want the end result to be?
Are you sure they are aluminum?

Nope, I would guess they're steel (not sure where you got aluminum from). My end result is for them to be blue, but right now they're like half black (the other half is peeling off haha)

Drop them off at a powdercoater

If the grinder is suitable you could put a wire wheel on it. Then you could get the angles / cervices.

I found that paint thinner works really well. Then I'll just have to grind out the rusted parts and that won't be too bad. What brand name of primer/paint would you recommend? I mean common ones I see around are Dupli-color & rustoleom, but should I stay away from those ones?

Okay, so for those of you interested in how I achieved my goal, I used 2 cans of Dupli-color paint stripper, and then I used a wire wheel on my grinder to get the rust off. You could probably do it in 2-3 hours, took me longer cause I only bought the stripper 1 can at a time, and then after I got the paint of I went out and when I got home I decided to finish up with the wire wheel.

But anyways, the stripper is only $7 a can, and I already had a wire wheel, so for $14 I now have piping that is rust-free and ready to be painted