Stripping the paint

Rick described the process of stripping the original Ermine White factory paint with chemicals as "a very messy, smelly and labor intensive chore," but one "that sure as hell works!" He cautioned that chemical resistant gloves are a must, as the stripper will "let you know" if you get it on bare skin. He also strongly recommends good ventilation and eye protection. A whack of patience is also helpful. If done right, stripping will result in panels that are true to the original factory contours, with well defined styling accents.

The Corv-8's previous owner had sprayed primer and several coats of white lacquer with real metal flake over the original factory paint. The stripper easily removed the lacquer, while the factory top coat required some elbow grease to remove, and the factory red primer was, as Rick put it, "a real bear." It stood up to several thick coats of stripper, which only softened it. It would not bubble like the rest. Rick had to let it sit for half an hour or more before using the scraper.

The fuel filler door area seen at right was rusty because it had collected an inch of dirt over the years which had stopped up the drain (not visible in the picture). Rick cleaned the area thoroughly and coated it with a special coating sold by Clark's Corvair Parts for treating gas tanks. He finished the fuel filler cavity by painting it chassis black.

It took several gallons of Aircraft Stripper and a ton of paper towels to wipe all body surfaces clean. Next, Rick went over everything with a Scotch strip/cleaning disc in an air powered sander/buffer. Then he used NAPA Kleans-eezy preparation to clean the metal before applying NAPA metal etch to keep it from flash rusting.

At right, note the result of the work done in the door jam area. It also looks like there's some work to be done on the dash!

Tech tip: When stripping paint with a steel putty knife, keep the edge sharp by occasionally putting the blade in a vise and filing the edge square.