Aircraft Stripper Usage Question

[JackMan]

Gents

I have the materials gathered to start my poor man's repaint of my fuchs. The goal is to keep the rims the stock aluminum anodized color and to repaint the wheels satin black in the center.

I plan to use aerosol aircraft stripper to strip the paint from the wheels centers/pedals.

Will the aircraft stripper stain the anodized rims? If I mask off the anodized lip bits, will that be enough to protect the lips/rims from getting stained if the aircraft stripper stains?

Just being cautious, I have all winter long to get these rims done.

wj

[kilodawg]

My recollection from past experience was that it didn't do anything to the anodized finish. However, I was removing that too (the old EZ-Off oven cleaner method) so I can't say that I inspected it super carefully but I know it won't outright remove it..

Not the final answer but I think you will be just fine.....

[EarlyPorsche]

The anodizing is ridiculous to get off. I tried and tried and nothing will touch it. I would honestly pay a professional to do it if I were you. I now have a set of Al Reed fuchs and they are beautiful.

If you are determined to get the anodizing off I just want you to know that no chemicals worked for me and I wouldn't recommend using/breathing their vapors. I had a wheel shop sand blast the anodizing off and they also turned the lip. It was $50 to do one wheel, my other three did not have the anodizing.

[kilodawg]

Alright while I appreciate EarlyPorsche's efforts. EZ-Off oven cleaner in the yellow can (important it's not the blue can) works pretty easily. Just use rubber gloves and a Scotch-Brite pad and maybe one or two times thru the process and you will have it all off.

I know that's not what the original intent of the thread was about but I just wanted to clarify that there is a relatively easy way if you were so inclined...

[rusnak]

I looked into this about 5 years ago when I repainted my wheel centers with satin black. I cleaned and degreased them with regular soap and water, then masked the clean surfaces with painters tape.

The anodize finish needs to be stripped by a de-anodizing process. I think some people use EZ OFF oven cleaner and other means. I just masked off the rim and re-sprayed the centers with good black paint. The stock black is just paint anyway. I think an anodizing shop could de-anodize your wheels, and then re-anodize them if you are going to restore them, but then you are talking about alot more than just re-spraying the centers.

I should also add that I re-painted the center caps at the same time, right over the anodized surface. 5 years later, the wheels look great. But the paint on the center caps is flaking off, and need to be repainted. I think that may mean that the new paint will stick to old paint better than to anodize. I'm just offering my own experience. I'm not a paint guy by any stretch of the imagination, so your experience may be different.

[scottb]

Guys: He doesn't want to strip the anodizing. All he's asking is if the aircraft stripper will stain the anodized part when he removes the paint from the center.

[JackMan]

Thanks Scott, Thanks everyone for the quick replies.

But, does does anyone know if aircraft stripper stains the anodized finish on the rims?

wj

[mdmiller911]

How do you "strip" annodizing? I always thought that the process of annodizing involves hot dipping the metal into a bath of color which is electrofied. When electrified, a very thin layer of material is etched off and the color bonds into the metal by filling the etches. The key word being bond, unlike paint which is just sprayed on. When stripping it, are you dissolving the aluminum? I'm not asking anyone to be Mr. Wizard but who knows how this works?

[rusnak]

oh, I get it now. sorry for the confusion.

I don't think aircraft stripper will etch the anodize, but I wouldn't go and pour it on there just to be safe.

As I mentioned, I re-painted my wheels by simply cleaning them, and then painting right over the old paint. The new paint will stick much better to the old paint than it will to bare anodized surface. This part I can say for sure. If you want a truly factory finish, then you might want to research a primer that you can spray on to the old paint to make sure that the new paint sticks well. I'd paint the primer on with a little bit of room for sanding off the ridge before the paint coat goes on.

[JackMan]

Rusnak

I'm using an etching primer on the bare wheel.

wj

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by mdmiller911

How do you "strip" annodizing? I always thought that the process of annodizing involves hot dipping the metal into a bath of color which is electrofied. When electrified, a very thin layer of material is etched off and the color bonds into the metal by filling the etches. The key word being bond, unlike paint which is just sprayed on. When stripping it, are you dissolving the aluminum? I'm not asking anyone to be Mr. Wizard but who knows how this works?

Anodizing is actually a controlled process of oxidisation, the top surface of the material is converted - i.e. it's not a plating process. Unlike ferrous oxide (rust), aluminium oxide is stable and pretty darned tough - much harder than aluminium itself.

It also seals the surface so nothing can gets through to the underneath. Color is added by doping the bath. And that's about the extent of my knowledge.

To get it off, you either need to machine or abrade off the top layer through to the natural material, or use a chemical that dissolves oxide of aluminium (and very likely aluminium itself).

I much prefer the anodised finish over polished myself...

I think it's unlikely that stripper would stain anodizing, but hey, I don't know what aircraft stripper is either. Given that alu is so prevalent in aircraft construction, I'd think it would be safe. Test it on an "inconspicuous area" like they say for household products..

[rw7810]

Actually, I said this before in other posts, but a business that annodizes aluminum or other metals can reverse the electical bath process and remove the anodized surface w/o scratching the surface. I had fuchs done in houston at a place and they only charged me 25 bucks. Maybe I was lucky.

[bivenator]

I had no problem using the aircraft stripper on my anodized wheels. It did not affect the finish on the anodized lip.