removing old paint from fiberglass

I decided to go ahead and paint the SR500, including the old fiberglass seat base. First I peeled off the stickers. I started by hand with sandpaper, and what it revealed was a coat of orange below the black. I also found this was going to take quite a long time. I considered a power sander, but you can damage the body lines and curves fairly easily this way. Other options are media blasting, or getting a chemical stripper safe for fiberglass. The paint came off with one of the stickers, and that gave me the idea to try aluminum furnace tape. It worked excellent.


Tear off a piece and firmly press it onto the paint, leaving an end sticking up to grab. If you just stick it in the middle of the paint it won't do anything, but needs a loose edge to peel it back. Sometimes it will let go of the paint, and you can roll it back and forth until it picks it up.


Under the orange is a coat of primer, and the gel coat below that. The primer is staying in place, which is fine since it will wet sand quickly, getting me back to the gel coat to begin the bodywork.


No fumes, no mess, and no chance of damaging the fiberglass, so that works for me. It is much easier and faster than sanding by hand. It probably wouldn't work on new or factory paint, but if you have an old fiberglass part it might be worth a try.