man , Personally , On my big ass case , With white paint , I will sand it to death to make it silver ( alum... ) use the sanding machine or by hand sanding !!! Good luck Computerking
if you want to go down to bare alum, get some Terpinsol, or paint thinner. but dont use it on plastic, it will melt through it.
The easiest way is to use a machine with like 120 grit to take away most of the paint. But you end with some wetsanding to get that neat look.
what ever you do dont use a belt sander. it eats away material like fire. you will get uneven dips and whatnot.
For stripping a car down, use a sandblaster, or walnut shell blaster... The ladder won't hurt the metal (and therefore is good to use on cars with a lot of rust).
A chemical paint stripper is by far the fastest and easiest solution. Just make sure it's actually paint and not an anodized finish, as is typically done on aluminum. An easy test would be to take some acetone (nail polish remover) and see if you can rub a little bit of it off in a small spot. Don't worry, acetone isn't nearly aggressive enough to remove the paint, but it will take a little off.
an mr2 (a car) would not be anodized. i say either get a palm sander, not a belt sander, but one that just vibrates, or pay to have it shot with walnut shells. the shells work like sandblasting, but not as aggressive. since the metal is harder than the shells, they distort rather than the body. the paint, however, isnt and will come off very easily. are you going to polish the body of your mr2? that would be completely badass, but a very long process. be careful about blinding other drivers, though. bear in mind that not all of it will be aluminum. one of my friends has a 2nd gen and the bumpers and side skirts are composite, either FRP or fiberglass. those and other body panels will need to be painted.
To strip anodized aluminum, use a very low grit sand paper on a sanding block and do it by hand. 150 or 300 (or do both). Use a sanding block to prevent dips made by the shape of your hand. Doing it chemically would most likely be suckage.
OFF TOPIC: [OT] Regarding removing anodization from aluminium: Check out post 7 and 8 in this thread: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=126876 [/OT]
You can use oven cleaner to strip paint off aluminium.. its usually anodised ( the process of running a current through it to make the paint stick ) so oven cleaner will do great. just make sure u dont touch it because it WILL burn your hands. Otherwise just use a sander of some sort.
