Saw this awesome video recently, it isn't mine.. (although it is filmed near me !)

http://vimeo.com/50489352

I love look of the bare wood flexi airdeck in there (38 seconds in) I was wondering how I would go about doing that to mine ?
Ive striped paint before, but not on wood that I care about. I would either soak it in oven cleaner / strong 'power spray' cleaner, or just have a it with a scraper / sander. I wouldnt want to do either of those to my board though, as I would worry that the chemicals may weaken the wood, and scraping / sanding would damage it, or weaken.

How could i go about getting the paint off without effecting the strength ?

Also what could i use to finish it off ? I have a standard clear wood varnish i used on an outside bench, I guess that would do ?

I did ask the guy who put the video up, but he's not very active.

Thanks in advance !
Tim

first hit it with sandpaper to break the clearcoat, then normal paint stripper(I like the super orange, slow to work, but low fumes!).

After paint is stripped, good sanding to have a nice finish on the wood, then stain the wood if you would like. After that, a couple layers of a tough polyurathane and you're all done!

One of the best looking longboards I ever saw was sanded to blank wood, then he used stencils to STAIN a design into the wood, then covered the whole thing with poly.

It's up to you, but the finish on some of the boards can get real slick if wet.
Back in the day, we would finish the last coat of clear on the board with a pinch of talcum powder mixed in with the finish, or to be a bit more aggressive, a pinch of plaster sand that was ground up a tad bit. Nothing worse than a super slick board with a drop of water to slide off of.

Thanks for your help guys !

I've started the process now, taken everything off the board, sanded down the top and put paint stripper on half of the top (i have to go out and buy some more..)
It started to bubble in one corner after sanding, so i picked at it a bit, and it doesn't seem to be paint ? it comes off in little bits, its stretchy, and plastic-y, like a vinyl sheet or something. Like I said i've put some paint remover on it, and ill see how that works after a while, but im not sure its paint, and so not sure how effective the remover will be.

If it doesnt work i may need some more help, as i have not idea how i would remove the whole lot effectively.

Either way, Im looking forward to getting to the fun bit of designing and finishing the board (im going to stain some patterns on it)

As I expected its an odd vinyl-esque sticker, not paint. I've managed to take it off the top half of the board, which looks good i think, but it wasnt at all easy, and its damaged the board a little (not enough to affect the structure) and the paint stripper stained the wood a bit.

There's some pics of the progress so far (including the damaged bits, and a piece of the vinyl sticker) at:
http://s1265.beta.photobucket.com/user/yesnopossibly/library...

Im going to try and sand off the stained bit, but I'm conscious of taking off too much wood. a lot of that side of the board will be covered up anyway.

Do you have any ideas of how i might be able to take off the bottom half without damaging / staining the board at all ? i want the bottom to be a good a finish as i can, as im going to put my own design on ?

Ive tried paint remover, scraping, hair dryer (to soften the glue) but nothing works as effectively as i would like.. ?

Tim

I would give steel wool a shot on a small spot and see if it does the trick. Sanding is a pain for a large project like this and you can get various coarseness steel wool. I recently refinished a wooden desk using steel wool, goo gone (for the stuck adhesives) and Howard restore a finish. Took me about 20 minutes and the desk looks great.