Sanding paint from aluminium panels?

Hello everyone,

I have a heap of aluminium panels (from a 1950's English Rose kitchen I am installing) that have the original paint + a layer (or two) of gloss paint on them. I am trying to take them back to the bare metal so I can repaint them their original colour.

I have ruled out paint strippers as being too expensive and too likely to damage the (very reactive) metal.

I have just spent the whole morning rubbing down one small panel by hand. It worked very well, but just took far too long with the number of panels I have to do.

Is there some kind of stripping attachment for the drill that you could recommend me?

Or can anyone think of a better way? Someone suggested dipping the panels but there is the risk that that would damage the metal just as strippers would.

Thanks!

You can get a non caustic based stripper..might be worth looking into..

There are attachments but they will probably mark the metal too

Thanks Zampa, little sanding marks are okay as the paint will fill them and I think they help the paint to adhere better to the metal. I just don't want some crazy chemical reaction that will corrode the metal deeply.

monkey writer said:

Thanks Zampa, little sanding marks are okay as the paint will fill them and I think they help the paint to adhere better to the metal. I just don't want some crazy chemical reaction that will corrode the metal deeply.

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Rub it down with fine wet and dry afterwards