[85MUSTANGGT]

I'm repainting my car and one of the problems I'm dealing with is removing paint from the bumper covers and other plastic parts. The idiot that painted the car last didn't put any flex additive in the paint so its cracking and flaking off. I know I can sand them or use special stripper for plastic, but is there any way that is quicker? Can these parts be soda blasted or something along those lines? How do body shops take care of this task? There is alot of layered paint on these parts so sanding and stripping is taking forever. I appreciate any advice.

[davestangman]

I would recommend media blasting , thats the quickest and easiest way to do it . Sanding takes to long and if not done carefully cam warp the rubber

[85MUSTANGGT]

So what kind of media do you recommend? Will the soda blasting work?

[xxmammajammaxx]

You would want to find some one who does media blasting and ask them about what would be the best to use on a plastic part as even soda blasting causes heat and could warp plastic parts. Is the paint flaking off, or just cracking? If the paint is coming off on its own you may want to try blowing it off with an air blow gun (generally used to blow dust off of cars) or even a pressure washer.

[85MUSTANGGT]

I think about all the paint that is going to come off easily already has. I was looking at the soda blast setups that Eastwood offers, and in the description it says it can be used on urethane bumpers. I'll bet with the lowest pressure setting and the finest grit soda though. I found a cheap setup at Harbor Freight, so I think I might try it.

[85MUSTANGGT]

If anyone has any other suggestions on how I should go about this, I would appreciate the input. I keep getting mixed answers about the soda blasting from people I've talked to locally. Obviously using the stripper is the safest, but I don't have the time nor feel like sitting in the driveway for days on end to use it. However, the last thing I want to do is shell out hundreds of dollars for new bumpers after I screw up my originals.

[67&05 Ragtops]

Soda blasting is the way to go!
I have never seen such great result when it comes to stripping paint. At $100/ hour, it will save you weeks of work.

[85MUSTANGGT]

Thanks for the reply. Here it is 4 months later and I still haven't decided how to do this. My ambition went south when it got cold. I'm hoping to get started on my project again soon.

[85MUSTANGGT]

I thought I'd give an update on this for future readers. I ended up just using the stripper and it worked a lot better and not as slow as I expected. I was surprised as it actually ate through the newer layers of paint, but didn't hurt the factory paint below. I was able to scuff the factory paint (since it was adhered to the bumper well) and repaint over it.

[kbrandt]

You might want to try using a chemical stripper. I used SEM XXX Bumper Stripper #77713 on the headlight buckets on my '86. When it was repainted years ago the shop messed up and painted too much. Anyway, this stuff will bubble up the paint almost instantly. Since you're painting the whole car, I'd recommend removing the bumper cover and doing it far away from anything else. Then you won't have to mask things like I did.