Silver and pink cleaning from frame

[rdooley79 28]

Any tips out there for cleaning the excess silver and pink from my kitfox cockpit exposed frame cross members?

What I want to do is remove the top paint coats, leaving the powder coat intact.  

Whoever recently covered my bird used a lot of silver and pink. seems like they went with the dip method. Dip the entire plane in a giant vat and then let it drip off. Might explain some of the weight I can't account for. 

As a result in the cockpit the white powder coat frame looks really dirty from all of the silver and pink. Then to top it off another previous owner thought it would be a good idea to take a paint brush with another white paint and paint over the silver and pink. It's not even close to the white of the frame and looks awful. I have thought of MEK but I'm concerned it'll go through everything and I'll have bare metal showing which is definitely not good. Rather have the bad paint than disturb the powder coat integrity.

 

Any ideas of how to proceed?

 

[EDMO 1078]

I would try using some laquer thinner in a spot that don't show for a test run.

EDMO

[1avidflyer 1983]

I don't think the MEK will lift the powder coating.  That might not work either, depending on what other type of paint you have on the tubes.  Like Ed said, try in a hidden spot. Jim Chuk

[Knuckledragger 135]

AFAIK about the only thing that will lift powder coating is heat or abrasion. So perhaps aircraft paint remover to get the pink stuff off?

Edited 16 Nov 2015 by Knuckledragger

[Av8r3400 1179]

MEK can eventually soften the powder coat if left in contact long enough. 

Use a white (non abrasive) scotch brite soaked in MEK, this worked well for me. 

[rdooley79 28]

You're right, powder coat is tough. Needed a reason to buy some  MEK. 

I just stripped the powder coat from my rudder pedal assembly. That was a real pain and only a wire wheel really got it all the way off.

What happened is that the rudder pedal tube weld where it connects to the cross linkage cracked on the right pedal. I took the pedals out and had them all re-welded and braced with strap material. In the process the powder coat was burnt off.

 

 

 

[C5Engineer 1170]

I used to use MEK to clean the exhaust residue off my powder coated parachute frame. Never had a problem using it with a rag. 

[EDMO 1078]

You're right, powder coat is tough. Needed a reason to buy some  MEK. 

I just stripped the powder coat from my rudder pedal assembly. That was a real pain and only a wire wheel really got it all the way off.

What happened is that the rudder pedal tube weld where it connects to the cross linkage cracked on the right pedal. I took the pedals out and had them all re-welded and braced with strap material. In the process the powder coat was burnt off.

 

 

 

Kitfox issued an AD for that same reason a long time ago - Doug Holly found another weak spot where the rudder cable tube attaches to the pedal tube when it broke - he reinforced it too.

EDMO

Edited 17 Nov 2015 by EDMO