Strip paint from a radiator, and then repaint. How?

[JonJ678]

Good afternoon,

I can see some small advantage to removing all the paint from one of my radiators, hacking around with it a bit, then repainting. Left to my own devices I would immerse it in acetone and hope for the best - is there a better technique?

 

[clone]

No sand it down primer and then repaint.

 

[Mynight]

If this is ignorant I apolagise but wouldn't acetone dissolve the flux as well? (Ending in a water feature rather than rad).

There's somthing called simple green that my friend used to use for stripping paint off his warhmmer models which I believe would be much more delicate than a rad.

Or dettol apparantly (added biocidel properties )

 

[ubersonic]

Why not buy the colour you want in the first place, a lot of companies make white radiators :S

 

[Mayhems]

Ultrasonic bath.

 

[JonJ678]

Well, various options there. Cheers.

Sanding the radiator would certainly work for the outer casing, at somewhat more effort than leaving it sitting in a form of paint stripper. Low tech may be the way to go.

I don't think acetone will eat flux. I'm fairly confident it wouldnt eat solder. It would be interesting to find out though. I'll look for "simple green".

Solid answer Mayhems, but difficult to do without access to such a bath.

 

[Mynight]

I don't think acetone will eat flux. I'm fairly confident it wouldnt eat solder. It would be interesting to find out though.

Upon googling for the past half hour it appears I was mistaken. Acetone won't affect metal and is apparantly frequently used to remove rust/prep metal for painting.

Have seen the odd post about acetone affecting copper flux but not exactly renowned forums I've seen it on.


I apolagise for misleading. Guess it was ignorance

 

[krisboats]

I helped my friend do his. Soaked it in nitromors (paint stripper) to remove the base coat. Apply a special metals primer to the large sections of bare aluminium (it stick better to metal than normal primer) and spray with hammerite metal paint in a colour of your choosing.

This was 2+ years ago so i dont think you'll have to worry about the paint stripper causing leaks.

 

[setter]

With modern nitromors, it will take a lot longer than the older stuff would have. The new stuff doesnt contain dichloromethane. Ive found it to be poor since the formula was changed.

 

[Frozennova]

Flux is a non issue, once the rad has been produced it's function is done. Flux is to clean a solder joint and allow good solder flow nothing more.

Leaving Flux in is more likely to cause a water feature as it's corrosive.

I'd just let it sit in acetone, then spray with etch primer followed by base coat.