Any modern ice, better laser paint removal options?

[h20hamelan]

I had thought about dry ice, too invasive, although…

Laser seems to have some promise as shown in this helicopter glass YouTube clip, fast forward to see the results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqVZ79SdWQ

Lengthy information, good.

https://www.compositesworld.com/article ... tte-part-1

They go on to say, it worked well in some aspects of the 2020 Corvette, before bonding. So I would assume the results for cleaning to substrate fibre is okay, in a new production. Unlike my 50yr old body.

https://adapt-laser.com/success-stories ... -corvette/

Then, in their opening, state not really perfect for car restoration. Though they are looking at molds, and production line work.

https://adapt-laser.com/laser-cleaning- ... ass-molds/


Back to the beginning. The helicopter parts are I am sure epoxy with vacuum, so, 50yr old lay-up techniques with chop-strand guns and no bagging dont apply, but…maybe under light slow use they might.

Comments please

[berni29]

Hi There

Funnily enough my brother has a high power laser machine that he uses for cleaning metal parts. I recently used it on the engine for my Zetec +2 and it works really well for that sort of thing. You can also clean thin metal, but the process creates quite a bit of heat. His is a 2000w thing and weighs over 250kg. It came with its own enclosed trailer. A lot of the weight is in the cooling systems. You can certainly use it to remove paint from a steel car, but I think no way is it going to be doable on a fibreglass car. It is the heat that will be the killer. Having said that apart from the two painted +2's I have already, I have a 3rd that requires stripping. I also have some surplus light pods. I will have a go at stripping some paint off tomorrow and see what happens. Or at least my brother will haha.

Here is a vid of him cleaning my cylinder head. It will give you an idea of the heat being generated. Set to a wider beam and very low power you might be able to strip some paint from fibreglass as per the helicopter bits in the first video, but an air powered DA is going to be a lot faster and safer I would think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GWFlnSWn58

All the best and Happy New Year to the forum!

Berni

[Emma-Knight]

Little warning - do Not use Dry Ice - it might severely damage the Gel Coat in deep. Been there, done that It had millions of tiny cracks and had to be ground out - unfortunately at the most complicated structure in the upper windscreen corner/hard top fixing recess. Next try was Soda Blasting - that worked fine.

[Andy8421]

I keep hoping someone will post that they have found the perfect labour-free method of paint removal.

I had planned to strip my car in 2023, but a few issues got in the way. I did however speak to a number of specialists about paint removal.

Two of the well known Elan restoration companies (Option 1 and Spyder) were using manual paint removal techniques. Option 1 had always been a proponent of a manual approach, Spyder had used soda blasting, but had found that it required more labour to repair the blasting damage than manual stripping in the first place, and had given up on soda.

As far as I could see, the problem Spyder had was that the gel coat had small imperfections near the surface that were exposed - even when gently blasted. This 'pox' required extensive filling and flatting to repair.

If anyone has recent experience of a non-manual approach to paint removal and could update the forum on the outcome, that would be very helpful.

- and a happy new year to you all.

Andy.

[berni29]

Hi

As promised here is a picture of a part lasered headlight pod.

It is actually quite smooth, and a light sanding would probably leave a surface that could be useable for some high build epoxy primer. I thought that the heat would kill it, but it seems not, at least on this. When the weather improves I might try it on a (red) door from my car that needs stripping.

All the best

Berni

[h20hamelan]

Wow, sure is promising.
What’s the wave-length heat watt etc settings, machine type?

[nmauduit]

Next try was Soda Blasting - that worked fine.

good to know, thank you ! a cost/time assessment of that process would be of interest, to compare with the manual time consuming one I've been using so far...

[berni29]

Wow, sure is promising.
What’s the wave-length heat watt etc settings, machine type?

Hello

Its a 2000w machine green laser, there are quite a few technical settings, not all of which we completely understand. The power settings are a %age, with various scanning and timing related variables.

It does use quite a bit of electricity. When I try on a proper bodywork panel will get a better idea of feasibility when it comes to stripping an actual car.

I can take some snaps of the control panel if it helps.

All the best

Berni