Stripping powder coat

[CityHick]

I've been working on fixing up my rear bumper and its going to be time to paint it soon. I thought it was a rattlecan paint job when I got it (looked faded like how spray-bomb paint gets when it sits outside in the sun) and it was... kind of. Looks like somebody did a quick and dirty spray-paint job over powdercoat. I picked up some Jasco which stripped the rattlecan paint off in a heartbeat but it barely touched the powdercoat. Short of taking the angle grinder to it, the stuff does not want to come off. I am both impressed and frustrated.

If you're curious what I'm doing with the bumper...
It was in decent shape but I've been adding some reinforcement here and there and I ended up doing a little unexpected rust repair. Nothing major but stuff that needed to be done. I also plan on adding a gas can/cooler rack to it and once that is done it'll need to be painted completely. Most likely I'll be painting it with some black automotive paint (acrylic enamel) and as such I'd like to get it down to bare metal so I can seal it up with a good primer first.

Any ideas out there? There's got to be some kind of nasty chemical that'll lift powder coat off... So far nothing I've tried has even tried to loosen it up.

[tykesplace]

It's going to be tough doing it yourself. I used to be a powder coater at a factory in Germany and that's tough stuff. If we had a part that baked bad or incomplete we'd dip it in an acidic cleaner to etch it then re-spray it. If it didn't come out good then it was trashed. Not worth the time to remove it.

Google search turned up this. Media blasting might be the most economical.

[CityHick]

Yeah media blasting is probably the answer. It sure seems that something this tough to remove should hold up pretty darn well to abuse.
The few areas where I had to do some welding were hard enough to clean up. Using a flap disk on an angle grinder seemed to heat up the coating and smear it around but not cleanly remove it. Its impressive that the stuff is adhered this well and is this hard to remove. This bumper was a good deal and is a good starting point for what I want, but wow I had no idea... It may get rattlecan for now, we'll see.

[Spaceburger]

Tony.....Dude....you are in trouble...just like me. You are fixating on getting all that shiet off so you can recoat and make it perfect. Screw it...get the Rig On The Road. Make do with what it is for now...I am SOOOO Preaching to the Choir here Dude.
Stay on Message:
Get the Rig On The Road, Go with What you got, Best Is The Enemy Of Good Enough.
Get the Rig On The Road, Go with What you got, Best Is The Enemy Of Good Enough.
Get the Rig On The Road, Go with What you got, Best Is The Enemy Of Good Enough.

[71BRONCO71]

Tony.....Dude....you are in trouble...just like me. You are fixating on getting all that shiet off so you can recoat and make it perfect. Screw it...get the Rig On The Road. Make do with what it is for now...I am SOOOO Preaching to the Choir here Dude.
Stay on Message:
Get the Rig On The Road, Go with What you got, Best Is The Enemy Of Good Enough.
Get the Rig On The Road, Go with What you got, Best Is The Enemy Of Good Enough.
Get the Rig On The Road, Go with What you got, Best Is The Enemy Of Good Enough.

X2!!!!
rattlecan over the powdercoat and drive the beast
nickels and dimes dude

[CityHick]

I hear you guys... I really do. I am leaning back towards the rattlecan idea but I made a royal mess out of this bumper now. I think once I add the gas can/cooler rack I'm going to go talk to the powdercoat shop and see what they say. Otherwise I'll take it somewhere and have it media blasted.

As for getting it back on the road... I'm working on it. I am going to try and take a week off work soon and spend about half of that time painting the rest of the body parts. Then it'll be a matter of brakes, steering, driveshafts, and a little more electrical. Oh yeah, wheels and tires....

[welndmn]

Get a paint stripping wheel for your grinder.

[Spaceburger]

I hear you guys... I really do......Then it'll be a matter of brakes, steering, driveshafts, and a little more electrical. Oh yeah, wheels and tires....

Tony is in trouble..he is in the "Yea I know but..." Stage. Justification of the Habit.
Are we talking Bronco Brotherhood Intervention here?
hell...you know what will happen...we will all bring our paint strippers!

[CityHick]

Tony is in trouble..he is in the "Yea I know but..." Stage. Justification of the Habit.
Are we talking Bronco Brotherhood Intervention here?
hell...you know what will happen...we will all bring our paint strippers!

LOL no intervention needed...
I just put a week's worth of vaca on my calendar here at work (for next week). The plan is to spend at least half of that time painting orange pieces orange. Later this week I'll be moving my Bronco out to the side yard and building my temporary paint booth again in the garage.

I have a crapload of vacation time and have burned a total of 2 days of it so far this year... A week's worth of quality time with my Bronco sounds like a decent way to burn some of it. Well half a week anyway - I have obligations out of town for at least 3-4 days of that. Plus the monday after that is a holiday...

PS... Bronco people are always welcome! I forgot all about those paint stripping wheels for the angle grinder. I have a feeling they are going to behave much like a flap disk and heat/smear the stuff around but they are worth a shot. This bumper is not going to be the final answer but it'll get me by for a while. I want a protofab bumper for the rear to match the one up front - but I could not pass the deal I got on this one... I'm into it less than $100 including purchase and mods.

FREE black paint is on its way too...