Removing paint gently

[GavinL]

My car was painted white badly by the last owner in cellulose over the original peat brown. The paint was applied so badly that it has crazed all across the roof and in places can be scraped off with careful use of a Stanley knife blade scraper, exposing the original paint intact. Any suggestions on the best way of removing the white paint without removing too much of the original paint, which I'd like to leave as a base when I have it resprayed? I'd considered an orbital sander with reasonably fine discs? Would the paint on a 68 car be cellulose or two pack?

[kennatt]

an orbital sander should get it off . A 68 car would be celly .but be aware that one of the causes of crazing,(there are others,) is where over the years successive coats of paint build up the thickness and eventually the next top coat starts to crinkle/craze after being exposed to the sun. The surface heats up and the paint expands ,but because of the thickness the top coat fails.Strip it off but before applying new paint take the paint(on an unseen )down to the original primer,just use a pin or small screwdriver and just see how many coats of paint there are.Its also possible that the cellulose has been put on top of an oil based paint. Again find an area that dosent matter and with a rag soaked in celly thinners,put a dab onto the paint and leave it for a few minutes . If the brown is not celly,or other paint type the thinner will cause the same damage to the brown, Saves getting the same problem again. Could be that the preparation of the top of the brown has been poor and so re spray stood no chance. good luck.

[GavinL]

Thanks. All the evidence is that the white is the only additional layer of paint over the original Peat Brown, as where i have rubbed through the brown, there is only the original red and green basecoat and primer evident, and the underside of the dash and door inners are Peat Brown.

[kennatt]

good .just needs the white removing and the brown flatting back,a coat of primer and new top coat.Just like that