The next step was to clean the hood of the layers of paint and the few millimeters of steel body filler. Normally Zahid would use his acetylene? torch to burn off the nuisance but that ran the risk of heating and deforming the metal. That is usually not a huge concern for fenders and such but a large un-supported piece of metal like the hood required a more delicate touch. This delicate touch is the use of paint removing solution to soften the paint before scraping it off with a flexible metallic scraper.
Sardar Rehman actually used this process for his whole car ( red spitfire) and this is something i have learnt from him. Paint remover is easily available at most paint shops that sell automotive paint.
The first step was to clean the hood with the help of Zahid's young apprentice, i can't recall his name right now but he was one resourceful fellow
Since this task did not involve tools i didnt know how to use, i jumped at the chance and set out to do it myself.
The tools used for this D.I.Y were:
- Medium sized paint brush x1
- Silver Sand Paint remover 1quart x2
- Flexible Metallic scrapers x1 (although you buy a set of 4 i think)
- Flat base of empty body filler tin packaging.
Step by step process:
1) Pour a little quantity of paint remover on your palette ( base of empty filler can in this case)
2) Get a liberal amount of the solution on the brush and start applying on the painted surface.
3) Let the solution do its work
A little while after application, the affected area will look like this,
5) To aid the penetration of the solution into the layers of paint and filler, scratch the surface with the edge of the metal scraper so that it seeps through. Greatly helps effectiveness if layers to be penetrated are thick.
6) Scrape off the flaky dissolved paint/filler mixture with the scraper
7) Repeat steps 1 to 6 till you reach shiny sheet metal, avoid scratching lines into the surface at this point and gently scrape off the last layers to reveal your true sheet metal.
The first break to take a picture,
The second picture break,
Notice the paint remover dissolving the body filler and forming a grayish solution that is spread over the surface of the hood. Also, using the bare edge of the hood you can judge how many "millimeters" of make up were on the poor thing.
After quite some tedious scrubbing, shiny metal starts to peak through. The process was tedious because the many layers of body filler required a LOT of paint remover to dissolve them. This meant i was out of my first quart of paint remover by the following picture,
By the end of both my stay and stamina i had gone through two quarts of paint remover an managed to clean up about half of the hood,
It took me quite some time and effort to get to this point. My working space consisted of one seat almost right on the ground and i used my lap as a table or an old tire, not the most ergonomic conditions. That coupled with the fact that i had quickly depleted the reserves of spending cash on my person meant that i deferred the rest of the project to Zahid and his apprentices.
End of D.I.Y.
