Eco Paint Stripper Tests

Since the tree hugger's got rid of the good strong paint strippers (OG Aircraft Stripper was the best) we are now faced to use the weaker stuff you can actually drink.

Recently I asked around and was told they are not that bad as long as you have patience and keep the parts "wet". On the label it reads "Safe Strip" Natura brand, non corrosive gel formula. This ECO gel that only contains alcohol esters, it does not smell bad and has no toxic warning symbols on the label. It says its environmentally safe, water cleanup.

Bought some and did a few tests :



KZ1000 oil pan - PO sprayed it black, at least two coats of who knows what. This is after two hours of just reapplying it every 30 mins open to the air, scrubbed off with warm water and a nylon brush.

Next I took the same part and brushed the gel over every spot of paint left. Then I put it in a big zip lock bag and left it for 24 hours.



Here is the result of the oil pan soak after 24 hrs in the bag and some scrubbing with a SS pad under warm water...



There is just some stuff remaining on the base between the fins and in the bolt recesses. There is no paint on the fins at all.

Overall I am happy with that result as it was minimal work compared to previous methods.

I eventually got all the paint off with some spray carb cleaner and a shop rag which took about 10 minutes.
 

In situation's like that I use brake fluid. I also use it to strip old yellowed clearcoat from engine case covers, tank badges, fork sliders and stuff like that.

I tried brake fluid on this pan, submerged the thin end in it for 3 day - zero effect. I also tried MEK without any major effect either, it did soften it a bit but it did not lift it off.

Don't know if it was the heat of the engine that baked it on or what. To me the paint just seemed to be black engine enamel that was sprayed on, not a hard paint at all.

I don't own a blast cabinet, plus I did this in the dead of winter in my basement.

My wife supplied me with the zip bags... even this one :



 

ECO, environmentally friendly. What a joke. That’s only if you don’t use it or pour it on the ground. Once the paint is melted and mixes with the stripper I doubt it’s very ECO friendly anymore. Oops didn’t think that one through. I’m so tired of the ECO,Climate warriors making my life miserable.

Yeah, I was shocked when I went in to buy a can of Aircraft Stripper (which worked within 1 minute) and got told it was no longer available. They did come up with a ECO version but its rubbish like all the rest.

This gel stuff works pretty good, the paint comes off in big sheets. Only down side is it takes quite a bit of time, but I got use to it real quick. They make these zip lock bag really big so no issue doing something like a gas tank.

I know this is not stripper, but I have small blast cabinet. Once you use them, it's a must have.

I have two Kawasaki (82 GPz, let's just say hybrid since it has so many different part, and 89 ZX-7) that I'm working on, and take all that money I was going to spend, it made sense to buy a cabinet. You can use it for just about anything. Just make sure you clean the part you blasted carefully. For this reason, I have small part cleaner bin (3.5 Gal, I think) with a pump. Also, depending on the blast media, you can skip the sanding prep and go directly to primer/paint.

No, I don't live in a big house, so I need to drag it out every time I use it. So does my part cleaner.  But it's a big money and time saver.

Ojisan rider wrote:

I know this is not stripper, but I have small blast cabinet. Once you use them, it's a must have.

I have two Kawasaki (82 GPz, let's just say hybrid since it has so many different part, and 89 ZX-7) that I'm working on, and take all that money I was going to spend, it made sense to buy a cabinet. You can use it for just about anything. Just make sure you clean the part you blasted carefully. For this reason, I have small part cleaner bin (3.5 Gal, I think) with a pump. Also, depending on the blast media, you can skip the sanding prep and go directly to primer/paint.

No, I don't live in a big house, so I need to drag it out every time I use it. So does my part cleaner.  But it's a big money and time saver.


 

I don't have a blast cabinet because I don't have a big enough compressor to run one. It is on my future list of tools to buy as I have a few project bikes that I could use those items on, but I have rebuilt several bikes without those tools so not in a rush to get them.

If I really wanted to "restore" a engine I would send the parts out for water vapor blast.
 

superremover.com/ca/stripper

Can't say anything about it shipping to the US, but I would imagine they do. I went through this process a whie ago, trying to strip a bunch of cabinetry with the new, next gen stripping products. No joy with it, and it was all of a size that you definitely cannot get into a ziploc bag.

So, since this company used to make my favourite all-around paint stripping product, and the stuff I used to strip the frame of my Kawi before powdercoating (another item you won't get in a ziploc!!) I started digging into the details. The compound in the old formula strippers that was critical for that super-fast stripping of paint is methylene chloride, and yeah... it's pretty gnarly stuff, but it works. So, I found that since you can buy it straight up, by the litre my first thought was to just get some and add it to the "new/next gen" stripper to make it actually kick some ass again.

I wrote Super Remover to make sure that wouldn't have any conflicts with any other chemicals already in their "safe" version of the stripper. The response from them was that they still make the original stuff and I can order direct, so don't muck around making up my own blend with hazardous chemicals. Good advice. I've been letting anyone else who's been unimpressed with the new stuff to just order some up from these guys and carry on stripping things like it's 1957.

To be fair, you really want to be wearing an activated carbon respirator mask + eye protection + long sleeves + thick nitrile gloves when you use this stuff. It IS pretty gnarly and when you get some on your skin it does the cold/burn thing, so be warned. You should, at least, save a lot of time messing around waiting on it to work....

Funny you should mention "can't get this part in a zip lock bag"
I watched a similar test on Eco strippers on You Tube and it showed car guys using the brush on gel on fenders/quarter panels - They covered the wet gel with Saran wrap (food plastic wrap) or plastic sheet and had the same results I did, the paint came off in big sheets/bubbled up so it could be scraped off.



There are several videos on there to look at for ideas.