Paint stripping and sanding
 

Dunno how but whoever painted my bike for the previous owner made some spots completely invulnerable to my best efforts. I've tried paint strippers of various kinds, including accidently using the Aircraft Paint Stripper meant for metal. And still there are spots of old paint that will not come up.

I'd like to move onto actually painting sometime this year. Is it safe to get the old paint off as best I can, sand it as smooth as possible and lay on the primer? Any suggestions or recommendations on the process would be appreciated.

Next time, I'm just gonna buy unpainted OEMs and go for it :p

I'd go for it!!!

What products are you using to try to strip the paint. I don't know of any plastic safe paint strippers and I'm going through generally the same process on my F2 only my paint is all oem.

Against OEM paint, a product called Citristrip worked fine. You can get it at Home Depot for about $10. Its a gel that you apply with a paint brush. Careful when you use it tho. If the stuff gets into holes (like where the fairing bolts go) and dries, it becomes a PITA to get out.

Against the layers and layers of rattlecan I had, I had to resort to Bulldog Paint Stripper for flexible bumpers and 80 grit wet sanding. The Bulldog is mostly safe until you get past the OEM primer. Even then its still pretty safe unless you overspray it and leave it on. Then it will very slowly soften the plastic. I did that in a couple nooks and crannies. But it was barely on the surface and a putty knife smoothed it out enough to dry sand flat again (though with a couple low spots)

I just use the newer version of this with allsorts of grits of sandpaper starting with some massive grits and have never had any problems on my F3 it quite easily sanded threw the laquer, vinyls and paint no problem.

Think it cost me about £20



http://www.jonesid.co.uk/images/Web-palm-sander_02.jpg

I have one of those too. But u have no idea how thck some of the rattlecan was. In one place it had cracked so bad it looked like a break in the plastic.

Just make sure that before you spray on the primer to clean it really good with wax and grease remover and let it fully dry otherwise your primer is going to react or run.
Good luck post up pics when ur finished.

600 grit wet sand and then a good primer have never failed me. make sure the primer and the paint you choose are compatable.

believe it or not easy off oven cleaner works great at taking the paint off..and it doesnt damage the plastic.. i stripped my tail plastic using it and it worked great..sprayed on let it sit for 20-30 mins scraped it off with a putty knife

i would def go down to bare plastic before primer when pealing the stickers off of my f2 it pulled the paint right off the lowers and it was not sanded underneath at all.