stripping plastic..

[JRock]

lets say, hypothetically, you wanted to strip all the paint and primer off some plastic pieces to repaint them again...

would i just... fill up a bucket with some acetone and let them soak (with a lid over the top, because this stuff evaporates retarded fast), or what? i'd like to avoid sanding it all the way down so as not to leave deep scratches like i did last time...

[DAZE752]

no the acetone will probably end up eating at the plastic

[ScottXGTR]

acetone would destroy the plastic.

ive been told by model car builders that brake fluid does the trick. you just have to clean the parts really well afterwards.

[DAZE752]

now that you mention brake fluid i had some drip on some old painted interior pieces and it did come off but dont know if they were prepd right

[JRock]

what do i use to clean the brake fluid off afterwards?

[DAZE752]

alcohol....damp cloth of acetone not saturated

[IndecentXxXposur]

maybe you could wrap the plastic parts in bologna a.k.a bu loney <--haha...and it would eat tha paint away...i know brake fluid will take the paint off a truck and if it'll do it on plastic then so will bologna a.k.a bu loney<--haha...cuz u put a piece on your roof and peel it off after a bit..and ya go a big metal circle unless u put it where theres bondo then idk what to tell ya....oh and don't eat it when ya done

[Scrappy]

I've tried the brake fluid thing on a couple of models and it didn't work well. The other modeler tricks are oven cleaner and purple power.

[O.G.Tierdrop]

I've tried the brake fluid thing on a couple of models and it didn't work well. The other modeler tricks are oven cleaner and purple power.

that reminds me...i used this purple stuff to clean my pipe, and srtipped the paint right off of it...i told the owner of the head shop this, so he could pass it along to other customers. i forgot the name, but it smelt like that purple degreaser you can find at home depot

[Ice]

stop being lazy!!! sand them ....

[jimmy726]

stop being lazy!!! sand them ....


lmao lol x2

[HybridImages]

It would help me to advise you better if I knew exactly what it was you were trying to paint.....Acetone will destroy most plastics. There are some that it will not phase example the cheap white plastic hard hats...acetone wont phase them...Then again if acetone wont phase it, it wont hold paint worth a damn anyway. Sanding may even be the worst thing you could do...depending on the item if manufacture painted you could end up with reactions in the new coat, sanding could only make this worse if the top layer that has already cured and chemically flashed is broken. Your best bet in many cases would be to just wipe down with denatured alcohol and paint. Yes sanding plasitic leaves scratches....The only way around this would be to sand until all paint is removed, prime, wetsand, prime again and so forth until slick. Like I said I dunno what your painted but that's the best general advice I could give.

[Weasle421]

A buddy of mine used oven cleaner to get paint off of a console for his burban. Left the console perfect underneath. He said the key was to let it sit for 30-40 minutes and rinse the paint away. He found this by a ton of searching.

[JRock]

james it's dash plastic and a center console...... the only pieces that still look good are my fuse cover and my map lights... the rest of it is either bubbled in spots, or... just looks like crap. i've got black vinyl paint on the doors, i've got a rattle can chrysler 300 silver on some, and the old no-longer-available HOK knockoff...and some shitty shitty green i got at Home Depot.... I really wanna strip everything and start fresh, maybe even have a real body shop paint it with real paint....


yes pugz, i've decided i don't like the home depot green.

[Smoke]

You could always sand down the pieces with some mid/low grit paper, then sand the gouges out with fine grit, prep it with acetone, then shoot a layer of high-build poly primer like featherfill from evercoat. After sanding and shooting that a few times it will be smooth as glass and that stuff is a dream to paint on top of....you can fill a crater with featherfill. The biggest drawback is that you will have no texture on the piece anymore, but that may be the look you are going for.

[HybridImages]

Sounds like you had a bit of a "lifesaver" going on with all those different colors. All rattlecan so I'm assuming that all are acrylic based. Sanding sucks on rattle can. If it was me and some may disagree, but trust me I deal with this type of shit everyday. get ya' some gloves for one, ya' know like the ones you wanna be wearing when you clean the toilet...You'll need a shit load of paper towels, acetone, and denatured alcohol. I've had them mix many times so no issue with them making any type of crazy chemical gas together or anything. I usually put my acetone and denatured alcohol into small more manageable solvent proof bottles (example the bottles that rubbing alcohol come in will work) It's a lot easier that working with the gallon cans...then again you probably wouldn't be buying by the gallon anyway so nix the above advice :o Anyway you're going to go through a lot of paper towels so be ready. Acetone will eat acrylic and it will eat it fat. You put some on a rag(pt) and wipe not rub if it's eating to fast be ready to ad some dn alch. to the rag and wipe. If you allow acetone to stay it will keep eating and soaking further and getting into the plastic. If your keeping a fresh cloth and repeating this you can get the paint of and leave the plastic somewhat etched so to speak. This has always worked for me, although if you want to weaken the acetone I don't see were an actual mixture would hurt. Once all of the paint is removed, clean well with denatured alcohol. Also, don't fucking use rattle can again. Use auto primer and the same base color as the truck...trust me you'll be much happier and won't be going through all of this again. Option 2 go to a salvage yard and get some virgin panels. I had a guy come in the other day asking about painting all of his interior panels, He was under construction (primier) and wanted to do this to "get ready" for a show. My advice was, screw getting ready for a show...go to the show, have a good time, but wait to paint the pieces along with the rest of the ride. One it will be that same color, and he wouldn't be "redoing" shit later. I learned a long time ago, it sucks doing things twice...all the time and money wasted could have went to getting it to your real goal....
jrock that last part wasn't directed at you bro, just some advice I was throughin' in there for others that may be interested in the topic.

[JRock]

it's not so much a lifesaver kinda deal, i just... i can't find the KK paint anymore, i'm stuck on the black and green thing... and the silver set off the green radio trim ring and matched my shifter pretty well... the green i did the console/door panel insert in is close, but not close enough... also, i totally understand why everyone wraps the door panel insert and paints the rest of the panel now. doing that big ass curvy bastard with a single piece of fabric is a biiiiiiiiiiiitch... frontiers are pretty rare in the junkyards,... i had a customer out in BFE in clarke county that had one his son wrecked, a few years back. if he's still got it i'm sure i could get the parts for a couple 12 packs lol.

[HybridImages]

that sound like the way to go, especially if you get to help drink 'em :D

[JRock]

that's why i only cut one door panel apart...so i won't have to buy 2 lol. live and learn...i'll add it to my list of stuff to buy...

[mazdawg78]

oven cleaner is the best but takes a lil time. i use it on my models and if i paint interior pieces. it take the mold release and all armor all crap off

[pugz]

sand them and respray.

[lo4lyfe]

i don't know if you have access to a blaster that runs on 90 psi, aluminum grit works good. I actually did 7 pieces yesterday. If not aircraft stripper works great, just keep a hose near by. The aircraft stipper works great and the water nutralizes the stripper in case anything happens. You can get it at any auto parts store...

[pugz]

Whats up guy. Bout time u got on here. Congrats on your feature