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Removing old paint.

JeepNoob

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Pueblo, Colorado
Well, some people just seem to gravitate to Jeeps... You know the ones I'm talking about...

Bought an '89 XJ for dirt cheap. It was probably pretty sharp when it was new, fire engine red with chrome exterior trim.

Aaaaaaaaand then some mental midget decided to come along and put truck bed liner all over the hood and give the rest of it a flat-black, murdered out, rattle-can job (trim included) that of course is now peeling and flaking off and just looks ugly. Now, I could just give it 5 years or so and let the Colorado sun do it's thing, but does anybody have any ideas on how to speak up the process without affecting the underlying factory paint TOO much? I figured taking a light grade of steel wool to the bumpers should take that stuff off without scratching the chrome up too much. I'm stumped on the rest enough...
 
Power washing the living f out of it?

You could also try wet sanding the paint but not sure how effective it will be. If there was no clear underneath the rattle can it will be a lost cause.

You're better off stripping it down and re shooting it if you want it to look decent. Aircraft remover works amazing, but it can be messy. I would at least try it on the chrome parts.
 
Whoops! Turns out at least some of this "paint" (especially around the hood) is just really crappily applied truck-bed liner. Popped the hood tonight with a can of VatoZone carb cleaner sitting on the driver's side cowl (checking for vacoom leaks.) As soon as I did that, I heard a God-awful hissing noise. Think like a radiator cap that you just opened while still hot. While looking around thinking I somehow severed some sort of major artery, I caught the smell of solvent...

Yep, I punctured the can pretty much exactly where you would punch a hole in a beer to shotgun it, and before I knew it, I had dumped about $4 or $5 of carb cleaner all over the Jeep lol. As the saying amongst my people goes "Ope! (pause) Oh well..." As I was cleaning it up however, I noticed the paint/bed liner was peeling off without affecting the underlying paint too much. It left a pretty gummy residue, but I think with more elbow grease, I could clean that up too.
 
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