Stripping the paint off the top of the hardtop

[hollowbase]

Here's the situation, the PO somehow painted the Cruiser with a very heavy coating of sand. I have stripped all of it off the metal parts using a chemical stripper but I'm very cautious of using it on the fiberglass. I can't take a chance on damaging it. Is there a chemical stripper that works on removing surface coating off of fiberglass. Using mechanical means like an angle grinder with a cup brush can be kind of aggressive sometimes so I'm trying to stay away from that approach.

 

[Augustiron]

I have been going at mine for days with 80 grit and an electric DA sander.
I actually have the top three coats of paint off and I think I'm down to the factory coat in places. Just have to sand that down through the gouges and scratches to make it smooth.

 

[mattressking]

Soda blasting if you find someone local

 

[Mr. Green]

Citristrip. Try a test spot before going full ham.

 

[rlong]

I don’t think even aviation stripper will harm ancient cured fiberglass, but it sucks to use so try the citristrip!

 

[charliemeyer007]

What do boat people use? My favorite paint remover is Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide, nasty stuff, hard on your liver, read and heed the MSDS. We used it to soften the glue for the leading edge material on the main blades of a Gazelle - they were some sort of composite.

 

[Augustiron]

My top looked like it had been painted numerous times, to the point I was thinking it might have been brushed on latex paint on top.

Jasco didn't do anything to it. I had to mechanically remove it all

 

[wimberosa]

Yes. Try the citri-strip. Its not that great but the fumes won't kill you and you'll get at least some headway to lessen your mechanical method you may have to follow up with. The jasco stuff doesn't seem to work work as well and has more toxic fumes. Put it on....let it sit for at least 24 hours. Scrape what you can off and then keep applying citri-strip til its not doing much after the last apply.

 

[Mr. Green]

Another tip, if you drape plastic/Saranwrap over the citristrip it prevents the evaporation and penetrates more throughly.