Primer: It's Not Supposed To Come Off...

I wanted to tackle the subframe connectors today and see if I could get the primer off of them. I am also working on refinishing a coffee table, so I was working on that on and off throughout the day, too. I figured it would be best to start with all the red parts because I wanted to keep them red. If I can remove the grey primer I would just mask them off really well so that I could reapply the POR-15 Black to the underbody.

I had noticed that when Sara and I had put KITT back up on jack stands to inspect the damage we did not quite have him sitting level and the passenger side seemed to be about four inches lower. You can kind of see that in this picture. I did not want to start working under the car with it sitting like this. I asked my friend Jessica if she would come over and spot for me while I jacked the car back up and readjusted the stands. 

When Jessica stopped over she brought me some water, too. :) Got to drink more water and less pop when you are working, she said. The water was refreshing and it did not take me long to finish it off...then I had my Dew.

Once we inspected the jack stands I saw the issue right away. I have six jack stands and two of the four are a matched set. This is not a problem as long as those two are either both on the front or both on the rear. As it was, they were both on the driver side front and rear.

All I had to do is swap the driver side rear stand with the passenger side front stand. Jessica asked what I wanted her to do and I said just watch...and if the car falls on me call 911. She said she could handle that. 

With the car level and firmly back on the the jack stands, I got underneath to see what I was up against. Basically it is the entire top half of the subframe connector that is covered in primer.

Billy of Knight Designs suggested that I soak towels in lacquer thinner and wrap them around the bars.

As you can see it had no effect on the primer, even with scrubbing rather hard.

I decided to try another recommendation from one of my Google+ followers and use Zip-Strip to eat at the primer. He thought the powder coating should be resistant to most chemicals. I figured at this point I don't have much to lose.

I started with just a small three inch area.

I let it sit on for about a minute and then scrubbed it off with a rag. It worked!!! Unfortunately I am all out of Zip-Strip. :(

I went out to Menards to get some more, but they no longer carry it. They said this was the replacement, so I decided to try it.

I tried a slightly larger area about six inches this time.

I can say that it definitely took off the primer...and then some. :(

You can see even in this picture that it had started to eat through the powder coating. Once it had started to peel, it took nothing for more large pieces to off.

I guess that I will be coating these in POR-15 Black as well. I think that I will end up just doing all of the red pieces in black. It still really steams me when I think about how needless and senseless this all was. It would have taken nothing for the painter to mask this off.

I will say this for powder coating...it has nothing over POR-15. Between the two, POR-15 is much, much more durable and chemical resistant. So maybe this will end up being for the best. Watching money flush down the toilet is never something one enjoys though, and right now that is all I can think about. Thanks Mario! :(