Has anyone stripped the chrome off plastic with bleach and had problem with glue not holding?
I read about using bleach, here in the forum, to strip the chrome off the plastic, in this case a Tamiya 1/48 P-51, and it works great. But all the seams are popping open. Wing leading and trailing edges, tail planes have fallen off and today the main wings came off. I am using Tenax and at first I thought it had gone bad. But I am building a Tamiya “B” at the same time, and just started 2 more D’s, and the glue is fine.
I experienced the exact same thing and I was using Tenax too! It got so bad that the thin trailing edges of the ailerons started to break. I tried my best to salvage the Mustang figuring it would no longer be a “contest caliber” build but it got to the point that I just couldn’t make the darned thing stayed glued! I ended up trashing it. Siiiiiigh. I wonder if others had the same experience. I’m not one to throw out a model just because it isn’t going my way. It’s just that there were too many broken edges for it to be considered worthwhile anymore.
Eric
PS. In case anyone is wondering, yes I did wash the plastic multiple times using liquid dish soap. Heck I even rinsed it!
Bleach is a poor choice for removing chrome. The problem is that bleach contains an active form of chlorine, and chlorine is **** on plastic, particularly styrene. Once the plastic has absorbed enough chlorine to become brittle, it is not going to weld, perhaps even if you melt it!
Try using oven cleaner to remove the chrome. I think I read somewhere that Simple Green works, too.
Triarius, I think your right. I used some chlorine bleach cleanser to toothbrush scrub a primmer coat on a fuselage and then tried to glue it with Tenax. The joints came lose after very little sanding/handling. I try to stick with Simple green and Bar Keepers Friend if I need a little abrasive to the mix.[?]…[8D]
A guy on HS said he used to work in a place that did some plating and that since the chrome does not stick to plastic it was coated with lacquer. Lacquer sticks to plastic and chrome sticks to lacquer. It kind of makes sense as any part that was sanded or trimmed is holding. But since this is one of Tamiya’s better kits as far as fit is concerned… there are too few of the parts that needed trimming.