I decided to strip two tanks of its paint before dropping them off for a VIP. I'm glad I did this. Photos are narrated with comments under each photo.
Here are the materials I used for stripping my old scuba tanks. Not pictured is a set of protective glasses and multiple pairs of latex gloves.
I didn't find any aircraft strippers, so I used this one.
Tank #1. It's a '95 Catalina AL80. Its last hydro was in 2010 and VIP is expired. It is in extremely poor cosmetic condition - the paint falls off all the times with flakes.
Base of the AL80 to illustrate its condition.
I scraped the tank BEFORE I applied the stripper, this was the result. I get this kind of flakes every time I mounted my BP/W on this tank. I'm so glad to get rid of this problem.
This is about 15 minutes after I applied the stripper for the first time.
98% of the finish came off so easily. There's some remaining paint that I had to apply a 2nd coat of stripper to get rid of.
All of the paint scraped off without effort.
Done with 2nd coat of stripper. Waiting for the stuff to do its magic.
WHY THE HECK IS MY LEG BURNING!?!?!!
Turns out that a small drop of stripper landed on my left leg. It burned like hell. I put my leg under the water for a solid 3-4 minutes and it was fine. Left a mark too.
All done with the tank!!! It looks like a cow with the shiny metal under the stripped paint and the areas that were already exposed to saltwater.
Tank #2. This is a '98 Luxfer AL80 tank. Last hydro was in 2010 and VIP expired. The paint on it is not original, it was rattle-canned white by the previous owner. It was terrible cosmetically, but I never had any issues with it such as flaking paint. Since I was stripping my yellow one, I thought why not this one too.
Stripper doing it's magic.
Stripper doing it's magic.
This was what it looked after the 1st attempt was done. It took me 3 MORE attempts to remove all the paint. This tank was very stubborn letting its paint go.
Both tanks all done!! Time to drop it off at the local dive shop for VIP.
Here are the materials I used for stripping my old scuba tanks. Not pictured is a set of protective glasses and multiple pairs of latex gloves.
I didn't find any aircraft strippers, so I used this one.
Tank #1. It's a '95 Catalina AL80. Its last hydro was in 2010 and VIP is expired. It is in extremely poor cosmetic condition - the paint falls off all the times with flakes.
Base of the AL80 to illustrate its condition.
I scraped the tank BEFORE I applied the stripper, this was the result. I get this kind of flakes every time I mounted my BP/W on this tank. I'm so glad to get rid of this problem.
This is about 15 minutes after I applied the stripper for the first time.
98% of the finish came off so easily. There's some remaining paint that I had to apply a 2nd coat of stripper to get rid of.
All of the paint scraped off without effort.
Done with 2nd coat of stripper. Waiting for the stuff to do its magic.
WHY THE HECK IS MY LEG BURNING!?!?!!
Turns out that a small drop of stripper landed on my left leg. It burned like hell. I put my leg under the water for a solid 3-4 minutes and it was fine. Left a mark too.
All done with the tank!!! It looks like a cow with the shiny metal under the stripped paint and the areas that were already exposed to saltwater.
Tank #2. This is a '98 Luxfer AL80 tank. Last hydro was in 2010 and VIP expired. The paint on it is not original, it was rattle-canned white by the previous owner. It was terrible cosmetically, but I never had any issues with it such as flaking paint. Since I was stripping my yellow one, I thought why not this one too.
Stripper doing it's magic.
Stripper doing it's magic.
This was what it looked after the 1st attempt was done. It took me 3 MORE attempts to remove all the paint. This tank was very stubborn letting its paint go.
Both tanks all done!! Time to drop it off at the local dive shop for VIP.
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