Best was to strip hood

[devilgear]

Hey everybody. I have a 73 Charger with a flat hood. A few years back I bought a power bulge hood. Its red and my car is green. It has one fairly big dent, but otherwise great shape. I finally want to get it on my car this year and the plan is to strip the paint off, fix the dent and paint the hood flat black for now since my whole car needs paint so I'll do flat black for now. My question is this. What would be the best way to strip the old paint off and start this project? I don't mind using paint stripper, but is that the best way? Any help would be great. Thanks

[devilgear]

Oops. Best WAY.

[jaak]

I used chemical stripper to strip my whole car. To me that's the cheapest/easiest way for the home hobbiest. My car had been painted twice over the original finish. The first coat of chemical stripper easily took off the top two finishes. I had to add more stripper to the original finish and it was tough, took most of it off, but what was left came off easily with a DA sander using 80 grit paper.

Jason

[devilgear]

Cool thanks. What kind did you use?

[jaak]

I can't remember....."Aircraft remover" I think. I bought it at Autozone. They sell it in spray cans also....doesn't go very far, but good spray cans are good for door jambs, areas like that. Buy a gallon can, last time I bought it, it was 25-30 bucks something like that, but goes a long way.

Jason

[71green go]

If the paint is old < I have had great luck in scraping the paint off with a razor blade paint scraper...if you get the angle just right it comes off amazingly.....no chemicals and cheap.......worked on three of my cars with enamel paints....

[devilgear]

I guess I could try that first. The paint is old. Its a 74 hood, so its been on there a bit.HAHA

[1970Moparmann]

I used chemical stripper to strip my whole car. To me that's the cheapest/easiest way for the home hobbiest. My car had been painted twice over the original finish. The first coat of chemical stripper easily took off the top two finishes. I had to add more stripper to the original finish and it was tough, took most of it off, but what was left came off easily with a DA sander using 80 grit paper.

Jason

I did the same.  I used the shelf brand at Ace Hardware-forgot the name.

You need to do a good cleaning of the metal though prior to anything else.  A good metal wash product will work good.

[Charger-Bodie]

If you use a chemical stripper ,be sure to keep it away from any seams. It is highly corrosive and you don't want it where you can't get rid of it.