Is there a paint stripper/removal for pre cat. Post cat lacquer and CV? Does any of the products from HD/Lowes work?
From contributor Cr
I have had best results with aircraft strippers. I usually get it at my local auto parts store. It works well on post-cats, let it sit for 15 min to soften up, then use a cabinet scraper and it peels off. Sometimes it takes two applications to get everything off. It's nasty stuff though, use thick gloves and eye protection, if you get any on your skin you will know in a hurry.
From contributor ji
Forget big box strippers. Google Benco sales. They have real strippers. There are other commercial strippers as well.
From contributor Da
Absolutely wear eye protection. I'm speaking from experience and I thought I was being careful when I was opening my container.
As for getting it on your skin, of course you'll know. But what do you do? The answer is that you must have a bucket filled with water within easy reach and a clean cotton wiping rag. The water will do a decent enough job to neutralize the material so it stops burning its way down to your bone.
Don't use a solvent to try to clean this off of your skin. Solvents will push the chemicals into your skin. Use water.
Score your finish first with 80 grit sandpaper.
Kwick Kleen Industrial Solvents makes (or used to make) an acid-based stripper. It had a pH of around 3 which is mighty corrosive. The great thing about this material is that it had no caustics (lye, sodium hydroxide) in the material because it was acidic. Caustics react with tannins in the wood and darken them. Kwick Kleen sells other non-lye paint removers besides this excellent acid material.
Again, score the existing finish. The remover has but one job, to pop the bond between the finish and the substrate. It may or may not dissolve or at least soften the finish that you have.
Just as an end note on choosing and selecting finishes, the reversability of the materials that we use rears its ugly little head when we don't want it to.
