mike_s
Contributor
So... I had an old tank that the tank paint was peeling/chipping and it was time for a hydro, so I decided to use some stripper and strip the paint off before I dropped it off at the hydro facility.. Thought I'd share the process for anyone who's thinking about doing it themselves.
what? you thought there were going to be "Exotic Stripper" pics here? hmmm... we know where you mind is wandering... this is the Tanks, Valves and Bands forum. You should have known it was about Strippin' tanks.
Sorry I didn't take any pics of it during the process, but didn't want to get stripper on my camera or lens, which would have destroyed it.
Here's a pic of the "before" shot of the tank. the back side had much more paint chips and several years worth of stickers. I wanted to get them all off to check for corrosion under them.
The process was pretty simple. I used "Aircraft Stripper" which comes in a spray can in the auto department at Wal-mart. You can also pick it up at most auto parts stores. It's a spray stripper that is made for stripping paint from Aluminum. We used it with cuccess in the past to strip a Cessna (which was aluminum) so the tank was going to be much easier...
This stuff is pretty easy to use. You just spray it on and the paint will bubble after several minutes and then you wipe it off. For thick paint you'll have to use several applications or use a scraper to "shave" the paint off. A must is wearing high "yellow dish gloves" and eye protection. Getting it on your skin will irritate it also as will inhaling the fumes, so a paper filter mask helps also. Just FYI for anyone doing this. Make sure nothing else is around. It will ruin the paint on anything it blows on. (Thank goodness (Thank mischeavious teenagers who spray paint cars haven't found this yet)
I also removed the valve before using as I didn't want to get any on it. I got a "rubber plug" from the LDS that comes in new tanks when they are shipped in w/o the valve. Dive shops will have tons of these typically. It's got a plastic o-ring on it so you can seal it pretty tight to get out chemicals.
After using it's very important to rinse very good with water several times. I use a hose pipe and then also wipe it down with a wet rag to make sure I wipe all the residue off the object I'm stripping. Give it one final rinse for the heck of it. The reason the rinsing is important is to get off all the stripper residue or it could cause corrosion.
After I was done, the tank was nice and clean and ready for a trip to the hydro facility. After I get it back I'll decide if I'm going to paint it or just leave it stripped clean and bare.
Here's the after pics.
So it looks pretty good and I was happy with it. It doesn't have that "polished aluminum" look to it, but I didn't expect that after it had paint on it.
I was able to strip it in under an hour and that was taking the time to get the paint out of the numbers/letters stamped in the tank at the factory and do the bottom. Overall I was pretty happy with it.
Hope this is helpfull to anyone else who wants to do some "Strippin' "
-Mike
what? you thought there were going to be "Exotic Stripper" pics here? hmmm... we know where you mind is wandering... this is the Tanks, Valves and Bands forum. You should have known it was about Strippin' tanks.
Sorry I didn't take any pics of it during the process, but didn't want to get stripper on my camera or lens, which would have destroyed it.
Here's a pic of the "before" shot of the tank. the back side had much more paint chips and several years worth of stickers. I wanted to get them all off to check for corrosion under them.
The process was pretty simple. I used "Aircraft Stripper" which comes in a spray can in the auto department at Wal-mart. You can also pick it up at most auto parts stores. It's a spray stripper that is made for stripping paint from Aluminum. We used it with cuccess in the past to strip a Cessna (which was aluminum) so the tank was going to be much easier...
This stuff is pretty easy to use. You just spray it on and the paint will bubble after several minutes and then you wipe it off. For thick paint you'll have to use several applications or use a scraper to "shave" the paint off. A must is wearing high "yellow dish gloves" and eye protection. Getting it on your skin will irritate it also as will inhaling the fumes, so a paper filter mask helps also. Just FYI for anyone doing this. Make sure nothing else is around. It will ruin the paint on anything it blows on. (Thank goodness (Thank mischeavious teenagers who spray paint cars haven't found this yet)
I also removed the valve before using as I didn't want to get any on it. I got a "rubber plug" from the LDS that comes in new tanks when they are shipped in w/o the valve. Dive shops will have tons of these typically. It's got a plastic o-ring on it so you can seal it pretty tight to get out chemicals.
After using it's very important to rinse very good with water several times. I use a hose pipe and then also wipe it down with a wet rag to make sure I wipe all the residue off the object I'm stripping. Give it one final rinse for the heck of it. The reason the rinsing is important is to get off all the stripper residue or it could cause corrosion.
After I was done, the tank was nice and clean and ready for a trip to the hydro facility. After I get it back I'll decide if I'm going to paint it or just leave it stripped clean and bare.
Here's the after pics.
So it looks pretty good and I was happy with it. It doesn't have that "polished aluminum" look to it, but I didn't expect that after it had paint on it.
I was able to strip it in under an hour and that was taking the time to get the paint out of the numbers/letters stamped in the tank at the factory and do the bottom. Overall I was pretty happy with it.
Hope this is helpfull to anyone else who wants to do some "Strippin' "
-Mike
