i used 2 gallons of aircraft stripper on the tough spots, corners, tight spots, etc...., and to remove top layers of paint and soften everything up...
then i used a razor to shave the bottom layers, once i got going i could shave an entire side, the flat areas, in about 20 minutes.
the conversion coating (sort of like a primer coating) isn't affected by any chemical means i have found, so to remove that i used a beveled edge wire wheel on my grinder, held flat to the surface, and it removes that coating fairly easily....
best thing is, doing it this way there is very little surface damage done to the aluminums original surface...... all aluminum has a "skin" sort of that is easily polished, if you hit it with a grinder or the wrong wheel, you dig into/under the skin, and then you have to sand it back smooth before you can polish it bright...
in my case on this van, i have about 80-85% of a great surface to start polishing on.... some areas the conversion coating was so strong i didnt have a choice but to dig in a little to remove it
after getting all the conversion coating off(lol, well 95%) i use an etching cleaner made for mag wheels to help remove the soot from the surface and that is what gives that sort of leopard print look that i have right now....
when i get ready to actually start polishing, i will go all over again with the etching cleaner right before i start.
i plan on using 10" wheels on my big grinder/polisher to get to the end result....im not going to try and achieve a show perfect award winning shine (think airstream trailer) but plan on as close as i can get before i get burned out, lol.
the plan is, instead of paint with polished trim, to go polished with painted trim.... only paint with be rub rails, drip rails/gutters, grill, and possibly door hardware...
this is the second one i have stripped down, lol, i learned a lot
on the first one, mostly what NOT to do.
i never got a chance to finish the first cause i was driving it/working on it and got blasted with offers to buy her from day one until someone ponied up enough to get my attention. it wasnt as nearly classic and cool as this one, it was a '77 kurbmaster, basically just a square box with no drivers door..... this one is a '57 kurbside
