Plastic Safe Paint Stripper

Post edited by: KZ_Rage, at: 2006/05/16 12:06

Hey Shoey949,
Go ahead and teach us something. I'll put my money on the no problem side of the issue.

Bill
KZCSI

i have used brake fluid to remove scale model paint for a couple years now. and i have used it on my bike side covers as well. some paints do not come off very easily with brake fluid. but generally, the plastics i have used it on were not damaged... however... some of them are damaged by brake fluid. my side covers show no signs of melting or degrading because of brake fluid paint removal. the only sign that something was done to them is a gray surface haze.

provided you thoroughly clean the parts with dish soap and water, you should be able to neutralize the brake fluid. after you wash them, wash them again. and probably a third time before you acually paint. you want to make sure you get all the brake fluid off before you paint... otherwise you will ruin the paint from the inside, and it was all for nothing.

~mike

as for castrol super clean... it generally will not take off factory paints. they are just too tough to penetrate. it will damage the surface a bit, but it doesnt have the strength to get through most paints.

~mike

Fingernail polish is a combination of acetone and aromatic spirits/oils. It is generally too weak to do much to plastic but acetone by itself will quickly melt plastic and is actually used to polish plastic. When I used to make custom golf clubs, I used acetone to polish ferrules which are the little, tapered plastic sleeves above the clubhead whose primary purpose is cosmetic. They sort of provide a visual transition between the head and shaft. These ferrules are quite a bit bigger than the shaft and made out of plastic. You use a file to round them down to the diameter of the head then put some acetone on a rag and wipe the ferrule till it melts and it also smooths and polishes the surface and it looks like it was made exactly for that head/shaft combo.

As for removing paint on side covers and the ducktail, well... why remove it? I sand the existing paint till it is smooth using finer paper (first dry then wet) and shoot the piece with filling primer. Doesn't make much sense to see plastic, near as I can tell...

Thats what I do, sand dry then wet. Fill with Primer filler - sand again refill with filler, wet sand with fine paper. Wash with detergent water Primer again, scatch bright pad it with chemicals my brother gives me and paint. rough up a bit and clear coat.