Stripping clear off M-Parallels post 2022

[632 Regal]

I have tried 4 "consumer" paint strippers and no love at all. If I want them to work I need to use a wire wheel / brush or grind. If I do that it will mess up the finish of the original. I could just give up and paint the barrels but then again I have to deal with the partial softened clear coat. It all needs to go. Since the EPA basically banned the main ingredient (methylene chloride) in paint strippers for the people we have very little to work with. I have spent literally 7 days researching options. There seems to be none yet.

I will try the local body shop supplier and see what transpires.

So far for us little folks we are not loved.

[632 Regal]

Just got back from the suppler. They are not allowed to sell anything with methylene chloride because they sell to the public. Closest I can find is industrial suppliers but you have to be a legit paint facility and it's 5 gallon minimum. So besides the business aspect that's over $500.00 plus shipping. Still thinking on this.

[632 Regal]

Enough of this nonsense! I am going to make something, whether it works or not? I have compiled the basics from a few MSDS on different strippers that used to work. The ingredients differ slightly and some use stuff the others use or don't use... you know secrets.

The main ingredient of all is Methylene Chloride or Dichlormethane which are the same thing difft names (is available just not in a stripper mixture). The MSDS says 40-80% in all, I will assume it is around 60-80%. I will try to make some sort of list that makes more sense but it will be hard due to the different ingredients. I will sublist the various ingredients as I found. some will overlap because they just do.

1) Methylene Chloride (Dichloromethane) 40-80%

2)
a. Petrogas, liquified, sweetened 10-30%
b. Propane isobutane, N-Butane 10-30%
c. Methanol max 10%

3)
a. Methanol 1-5%
b. Methanol 3-7%

4)
a. Polyphenyl Ethoxylate 1-5%
b. Triethanolamine (Trilamine) 1-5%
c. Parrafin wax 1-3%
d. Ethyl Alcohol / Ethanol

In other reading I have tried to put something together that makes more sense.

1) Methylene Chloride
2) Methanol - So it's water soluble? (Fuel line anti freeze or Dry Gas)
3) Mineral Spirits / Paint Thinner - so you can blend it together?
4) Methylcellulose - Thickener (Wall paper glue)
5) Parrifin Wax - So it don't evaporate fast
6) Ethanene Glycol - So it doesn't evaporate fast
7) Ethyl Alcohol / Ethanol - So it's water soluble?

I am missing Methylcellulose which I will grab a tub of tomorrow. I have most of the rest but I don't want to mix a batch up and have it run off the wheel.

To be continued...

[632 Regal]

The methylcellulose works great to thicken it but the MC evaporates too fast. Not having great luck mixing the wax into anything yet but I didn't try very hard yet.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2327701A/en

[632 Regal]

DHL reported an attempted delivery, we were here whatever. More to come of this.

I got some acetone and have kerosene which should liquefy the wax, it didn't. Neither on their own or mixed. Temperature was 60 degrees so that may be the issue. I just want to strip these things, don't want a chemical engineering degree or whatnot. Losing hope kinda but not giving up.

[632 Regal]

Strippers did arrive from NZ. The things you have to do to get real strippers these days.



Went for the wide wheel that was not participating with the store bought strippers. This is not a golden bullet at all. It does however soften the paint? whatever it is enough to scrape off. I did realize it also was eating my plastic scraper so I went to metal after checking if it would jack up the non polished parts and it seems to be fine. I am using a brass brush in the corners that I can't scrape. I will work on the other wide wheel that the finish seems to hate to be removed and then go to the front skinnies that seemed to delaminate from the current crap strippers available. Man this is a lot of work and money. Just buy a good set of wheels. I didn't even start on the massive curb rash yet.

[632 Regal]

The fronts are the ones with the stubborn coating. The rears are not that bad but still not easy. Got both fronts done preliminary, got one rear done tonight. Once done they will all have to be gone over with more stripper and a brass brush but at least the coating kinda melts.

If I had to do it all over I would have just spent the money on a refinished set long as the lips weren't thin. That was the thing that stopped me from getting a redone set. Redone sets they spin them and cut down the lip to remove rash and look true. They can get very thin.

Other than that update this pretty much sucks. To think I was 100 bux shy of a good set makes me rethink it all. I spent half but ended up spending 300 extra just to get the clear off. Plus the time and effort. Not considering the final cleaning and sanding and polishing if needed plus the clear coat....

Just save up and get something decent in the first place. This sucks. I'm not done though lol. I will post it all as I go. Sorry about lack of pics, I don't care to even know what I am going through at the moment.

[genphreak]

Mate, this sounds tortuous! For a moment thought we might lose you in some disastrous household industrial fire.

Why not sand blast 'em? Or take them somewhere to get done, and maybe powder coated?

I had a set powder coated silver once, superb finish, very resilient and all done for a case of beer.

[632 Regal]

Taking them in here costs 125-200 each wheel for refinishing. Blasting doesn't work cause it bounces off the clear lol. And if it did it would ruin the factory machine finish which I am trying to save except the lips those would look cool polished. More about that in another post.

[632 Regal]

Okay... Another fun update without pictures as usual. I got the clear off finally and filed the rash down figuring I'll sand the lip and barrel down to polish. I sanded the file marks smooth and started to sand the lips with 400, not cutting at all. Almost like the surface is a thick paint, you can see the difference where I filed it smooth right next to the factory finish. Where I filed is aluminum shiny but the finish is not budging at all. It does however clog the sandpaper pretty easy.

I then tried 320 grit which should do the job with no effort. Wrong, it kinda isn't doing anything but freak me out about what I may be getting into. Regular bare aluminum alloy would not have such an issue. I am afraid of going coarser and that not doing the job then what? If it does kinda work but not all the way these will have to be painted all over and look like garbage. I wish I had a spare wheel to experiment with.

I will try wet sanding tomorrow and see if that works. If not then we go to the 220... then 150... 80? Take the grinder with 36 grit?

I'll post some pics tomorrow? LoL I put a posty note on the middle of my monitor, that should remind me.