Chemical stripper, for paint! Options

[MattR]

So Im about ready to get all the old paint off my car and I was thinking of using chemical stripper. Whats the best stuff? Ive heard aircraft stripper, but I live in Cali-stinkin-fornia, so nothing is legal. Any suggestions on where to pick up something that works on LA or orange county?

[914GT]

Here are some more tips if you strip. Don't do it in the direct sun, do the work in the shade if you can. Warm day is good, like 70 deg or warmer. Brush on a good thick coat and watch it for a bit, then when it starts to look dry brush on some more. You can put some plastic over it to keep it from drying out. If the paint is polyurethane clearcoat it will take a while but eventually will start wrinkling, you can even hear it cracking and popping. Give it time, then it will get to the point where you can take a wide scraper or putty knife and scrape it off. Do this where you can make a mess, not over a nice garage floor you don't want messed up. Now, the first pass you'll find you'll have removed just the clearcoat (assuming BC/CC old paint job). Now you have to repeat the process all over again to take off the base coat layer. Enough times you'll start seeing the underlying primer-surfacer (may be gray) or factory self-etch primer (may be red). Depending on how many paint layers it might take awhile to get down to bare metal. You may see plastic filler (Bondo). This will soften up and if thin will come off. If thick, you can scrape the remover off and leave it to sand later, or you can use a heat gun to take the filler out down to bare metal. Once you wash off all the paint remover residue you will have to wipe it down with lacquer thinner, then let it dry and then hit the bare metal with a DA sander. You don't want the remover getting into seams or places like the under-hood braces. If it does, then get a power washer and blast plenty of water into all the cracks and seams (dry or blow it off so it doesn't rust). It can take a couple gallons of stripper to do a whole 914, and a lot of time. You'll get a pile of old paint too.