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Had a lot of time the last month and have been moving along on my 59' Barbour. The previous owner painted over every inch of aluminum and chrome with some type of thick metalic gold paint. I took a small piece of aluminum trim, coated it with paint stripper and used a rough towel to clean it off. Then I took 00 steel whool and followed up with a small buffing wheel....Long story short, this boat has miles of trim, hinges, and hardware, this gold stuff is a bear to strip off. Any other ideas on how to get this paint off?
Could it be blasted off?
Thanks,
Tom

The paint could be removed with media blasting. Glass beading or some sort of gentler medium. Do not use sand!!! Price may be prohibitive and also size of the object due to the fact that it will have to fit in a blasting cabinet. And there would still be some amount of polishing involved. Your local auto parts store should be able to steer you towards a source for blasting.
Keep us posted.
Karl.

Thanks Karl.
I'm going to try soda blasting since I can get a soda blaster from Harbor Frieght for $99.

Tom,

Glass bead is good and some other medias you can try are walnut shell or plastic. With any of these medias you need to use lower pressures or you can distroy the surface of the part you are blasting.
Glass beads fracture when used with pressures greater then 35 PSI. This will cause the finish to be rougher. Glass bead when used at the correct pressure will give you a peened finish which will be smooth with closed pores.
The walnut shell and plastic medias are less agressive then sand or aluminum oxide and will not errode the metal as quickly, but may leave a mate open pored finish.
I am not that formiliar with soda blasting, but I would think that it would be less aggresive then the walnut or plastic medias would be.
Check on the cost of the media you are planning on using and if you are not able to blast the parts within a cabinet you will not beable to reuse the media with out it being contminated with dirt, etc. from the floor area. If you do use a cabinet be sure it has an proper vacuum filter to pull the dust out of the air. Also with blast cabinets the material you are blasting off the parts does get mixed in with the media and will need to be changed often.

With any blasting media used outside or in a improperly vented cabinet you need to have a good respirator and face protection as well as an body parts that are exposed. There are canvas blast hood that are available to protect your head and face, but a good dustrepirator needed to be used with these also. The best is a air fed sand blasting helmet for your protection against the dust.

Good Luck,

Phill

Thanks Phil, I will make sure I get a resperator and the right gear....Didn't realize that I would need that stuff too.
Tom