Our Touring Past

I have started to do some paint stripping on the Gypsy caravan to seal the sides before it goes into storage. There a couple of ways to strip the paint of a van. The first is using paint stripper, which is rather messy and can leave a caustic residue, and the second is to use a heat gun, which I prefer to use.

Before I start I must stress that most of the old paint that will be stripped off a vintage caravan will be Lead Based Enamels, so protective equiptment should be worn including gloves and a mask and children and pregnant wives should be kept away.

To start run over the paint to be stripped with a paint scraper to get rid of any loose flakey paint.
Then using the heat gun ( experiment on a small unseen area first ) hold it about 7 to 10 cm away and slowly heat the paint to be removed. It will start to form small bubbles and when this happens start to scrape the paint off using a paint scraper. Care should be taken as to not gauge out the plywood, and do not use too much heat as the paint and ply will start to burn. Check that the heat does not bubble the paint on the inside of the van if has a single skin.
Once the paint has been removed the area should be sanded to remove any paint remnants, dusted down then it should be sealed with a good quality primer/ sealer in either Enamel or Acrylic depending on what type of finish coat you plan to use..