Starting the wheel swap

[great white]

OK. I'm going to rant here and I'll straight up say "tree huggers" probably aren't going to like it.

The first side of the rim stripped beautifully. There were only a few small spots where a hint of pint was still visible and a second coating of stripper would have cleared it right up. But I was out of stripper, having just finished off an old can I had in the cabinet.

So I went to the store and bought another can. The stuff I had was discontinued and all they had was "new generation" stripper. I didn't put a lot of thought into it, other than it was more expensive than the old stuff. The claims on the can were the same as the old stripper (removes 5 paint layers at once, etc), so there was no reason to think it wasn't going to work like the old stuff.

I got home and laid it out on the other side of the rim.

Nada.

The red paint barely budged. It took 5 applications to get any of the paint off! And the paint that did come off turned into some kind of red/pink slurry that ran down on to the previously stripped side and stuck there!

WTF?!?!?!?!

I grab the old empty can and read the ingredients. Chemical names are different than the new can.

Now, let me be clear; I've got no issues with changing products to be more environmentally friendly (I want my daughter to have a world to live in once I'm gone), but they've still got to WORK. This crap is more expensive and doesn't even do half the job. In fact, it made the job it worse.

A quick google reveals that the products in the old stripper are essentially "outlawed" in the US, Canada and the EU. Specifically, the chlorofluorocarbon Dichloromethane (or methylene chloride if you prefer). This is the active ingredient in the old paint strippers that worked so well.

But being a CFC, it's now the "tool of the devil" and the cause of everything that's wrong in the world today. Don't get me wrong; I don't disagree that CFC's are a problem for the environment, but they still have uses in the modern world, just in limited quantities.

Talking to a few retailers revealed that it was indeed discontinued and they could only get the "green" stripper now. They candidly admitted that the new stuff is almost useless compared to the old stuff. They also said while they couldn't get it anymore, they were still allowed to sell existing stock until it was gone.

Aha! I jump in the truck and hit the smaller hardware stores around me. I get lucky and hit a place that still has stuff on the shelf with Dichloromethane and tolulene in it. I grab the 6 cans that were on the shelf and head out the door. I find a few more at another store. So I've got a stock of about 10 liters in total.

I get home and apply it to the rim where the paint still sits, essentially unaffected by the "green" stripper. This stuff is liquid instead of a gel, so it's a little more difficult to work with on a rim. But not even 5 seconds later, the paint is bubbling and curling up off the metal. The paint "slurry" that ruined the already stripped side just wipes off.

For the "health police" that may be reading, I wear a VOC respirator when using stripping products (or anything with VOC's) anywhere but outside in fresh air. Learned long ago when working with aircraft products (almost exclusively VOC compounds) that you need to protect yourself or suffer the consequences.

So I've now got a stock of paint stripper again that actually works. I'll pick up a few more cans if I run across them, but what I have now should last me until I'm no longer going to be working on stuff (refinishing furniture, rims, etc).

You can outlaw harmful stuff, you can make green stuff, and you can even charge more for it. But at the end of the day, it's still got to do the job or it's worthless. In fact, you end up using so much more of it trying to do the same job, it could potentially be worse for the environment than the old stuff. I have no evidence of that, that's just my opinion.

They need to go back to the drawing board and make something that actually strips paint if they are going to sell it as paint stripper.....

[ZOA NOM]

Welcome to the Ocasio-Cortez New Green Deal.

[great white]

Welcome to the Ocasio-Cortez New Green Deal.

Nope, my dogs not in that fight:



I have no desire to comment on USA politics whatsoever...

[Tuned forks]

I feel your pain.  Many cans of the new stuff have come and gone from my garage but nothing works like methylene chloride.  I paint occasionally and knew an older painter. He once said to me that the old paints were bad for the environment but safe for the painter and the new paints were safe for the environment but killed the painters.

Joe

[Pat Conlon]

The low VOC stripper (and paint)  is all we can get here in Calif.... it's been that way for years now.

The stripper I get at my local Ace Hardware works ok when I use it with my cordless drill and rotary wire brush along with a face shield, long sleeves and gloves. It does take multiple applications and scrubbing.

On the 5 FZR rims that done, I just Simichrome polish the machined surfaces and let the pebble surfaces patina naturally to a medium gray color.

[ribbert]

...... and all they had was "new generation" stripper......

Yep, been down that path. Not worth a cracker, you may as breath heavily on it, it would be about as effective. I have occasionally bought the environmentally friendly product by mistake and thrown it straight in the bin.

I have come to the conclusion that any product, household cleaners are a good example, that claims to be environmentally friendly, mentions "earth" in it's name or has pictures of trees or rivers on the front, won't work.  
We are fortunate here that at least we can still buy the potent stuff.

Noel

[Bill_Rockoff]

You definitely want to be careful using "the good stuff." The very properties that make it good at dissolving paint are the things that make it bad to inhale or absorb through your skin. Ventilation is important, but so is barrier protection (rubber gloves.) A bead-blast cabinet is a hassle, but so is liver cancer.

[great white]

You definitely want to be careful using "the good stuff." The very properties that make it good at dissolving paint are the things that make it bad to inhale or absorb through your skin. Ventilation is important, but so is barrier protection (rubber gloves.) A bead-blast cabinet is a hassle, but so is liver cancer.

Not a problem, I've got a handle on it. Worked with all manner of deadly stuff my whole life. Still here, no problems.

Dichlor is in the category of "neurotoxin", so it's nothing to be triffled with....kill ya dead if you're not careful or at the very lest, eff you up something fierce.

[Bones]

Years back I was bleeding the front brakes and a drop of brake fluid landed unnoticed on the rim edge, came back later and saw a nice shiny surface underneath the paint which I liked, so ended up painting the edges of both wheels with it. Worked very well.

[1tinindian]

  I just Simichrome polish the machined surfaces and let the pebble surfaces patina naturally to a medium gray color.

I wonder where I've seen that done before?

[great white]

With the rear wheel, brakes and swingarm sorted, time to start the front wheel:





This part is simple though. It's the "unobtanium" wheel - 1988 FZR750R.

Slots right in. Don't even have to change the wheel bearings.

Perfect match to the FZR1000 rear wheel too!

[great white]

Whoops, the second pic was supposed to be this one:

[Pat Conlon]

Looks like it belongs there. A natural fit.

[Troyskie]

Years back I was bleeding the front brakes and a drop of brake fluid landed unnoticed on the rim edge, came back later and saw a nice shiny surface underneath the paint which I liked, so ended up painting the edges of both wheels with it. Worked very well.

Nice, I've wondered about using brake fluid as a stripper.

[great white]

Oh yeah:



That looks damn good!

Just enough to look like 80's exotica without making it look out of the period.

Thats a battalax 120/50zr17 on there. A little bit of a short sidewall for an FJ, but I had some extras lying around. If nothing else, this will at let me roll the bike around.