Stripping The Paint

As of 4/28/00, I was still working on this part. I am way behind schedule. In order to paint my bus later, I have to strip off all the existing paint. No more "school bus yellow"! At least once a weekend, I visit one of the local Kragen's Auto Shops and buy out their entire stock of Tal Strip Extra Strength Paint Stripper. I heartily recommend this particular brand. I tried another brand and it was so weak, I might as well just sprayed the bus with water then scraped off the paint! Becareful of strong winds, though. A couple of times, the wind blew a little of the mist into someone, and being an alcohol-based substance, it packs quite a sting. Water only makes it worse. A few minutes after spraying the paint, it bubbles quite nicely and then it almost falls off, right down to the metal (or primer, depending on how many coats of paint there are). But there's another hazard. When scraping off the paint, wear gloves! If the paint with the solvent falls on your hand and is allowed to remain there for a few minutes, it will burn your hand too. And the burn hangs around long after the paint is brushed off.

Here is the backside of the bus, after scraping off all the paint and several industrial stickers.

Here you see the top panel stripped of paint and the emergency door is sprayed and bubbling	A close up of the lettering on the emergency door after it was sprayed. We found out the lettering was a sticker, but the spray took it off just as easily
It's kinda hard to tell, but the paint just peels right off. Here, Scott is using a sharp-edged putty knife	A better closeup of the paint bubbling

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