i have just stripped the paint from my ferarri dashboard. i feel like kicking myself. i really botched the job, i think it was too late at night. so i tried to strip the paint and primer off, but i somehow made the surface all icky. i have just reprimed it and sanded it into submission. whats the best way to strip paint off a part? i dont want to mess up another part.
I’ve had success with Easy Off oven cleaner, spray or brush on. I like brush on better, because of less fumes and mess. Soaking in Castrol Super Clean also works.
I use Chameleon Paint Stripper - never gives me any trouble.
will oven cleaner do things to the plastic?
No, it doesn’t hurt the plastic. Just be careful of your own skin.
roger that.
Yes Easy Off works great. I wanted to reinforce what Wayne said though about protecting your skin. It didn’t “burn” or “sting” or anything horrific to me but for a couple of days after using it I noticed that the skin on the palms of my hands started to flake off. It wasn’t anything terrible. Ever get dry flakey skin around your cuticle in the winter or something like that? It was just like that only on the entire palm. I think the Easy Off sapped every bit of moisture out of my hand. I felt like a snake shedding it’s skin. I was using my wife’s moisturizer every hour.
Weird, man!
Eric
Castrol Super Clean. Small parts just pour a little in a cup and soak them for a few minutes, then brush with an old tooth brush. Large areas, spray it on and let it sit for a few minutes. If it starts to dry spray it again. Rub lightly with a tooth brush.
Doesn’t hurt the plastic at all, and it’s reusable. When you are done just pour it back in the bottle and use it again later.
sounds like the rectal exam gloves might be used after all !. hopefully i wont have any more screwups that require me to strip paint.
[:O] ::speechless:: lol!
oook. i donned the exam gloves, and i sprayed on oven cleaner, dunked it into a glass jar and let it marinade for about 1/2 hour. no dice. nothing came off. im now soaking it in thinner. hopefully that will work. btw, the part im soaking is a small detail piece from the interior i dedcided to paint a different color. i sprayed it chrome yellow and dont like it. it was a laquer spray. do i need enamel thinner or something ? im positive its my bad , not the chemical screwing up.
I haven’t tried Castrol Super Clean on laquer, but I know for a fact it will remove enamel and acrylic.
Perhaps just smoothing the paint with sandpaper or steel wool and then painting over it would be the way to go.
Will oven cleaner or Castrol take chrome off plastic? I want to strip the bumpers/grill of my 67 GTO and paint them the body color, just because I can. I want to see how that looks, and also, I’ve never been a big fan of lots of chrome on a car. Thanks.
uh oh. does “thinner” from paint shops soften styrene ? i hope it doesnt…
ok this is catastrophic. it does soften the styrene. help !i dunked it in and went to the bathroom! help ! ok i better calm down. my hopes of a show- quality model are being dashed by stupidity on a 40 dollar kit! ARGH !
I don’t know if it will or not. I saw a post a while back about stripping chrome parts, but I can’t find it now.
I’m sure you know this, but the grille and bumpers on the '67 GTO were chrome. I had one (as well as a bunch of other 60’s and 70’s muscle cars) [:)] They changed body style and went to the monochrome look in ‘68’
It will if it’s laquer thinner! I can also tell you for a fact that stripping paint with gasoline is never a good idea. It certainly removes the paint, but it also dissolves the styrene. I had one turn to a puddle of goo when I was a kid.
Lemmon,
I’ve heard that bleach will take the chrome off the plastic. I’ve never tried it myself but I think I read that here on the FSM forum.
Oh, and I don’t think Easy Off is very effective on lacquer. I undercoated a P-51 using Krylon which (and please correct me if I’m wrong) is a lacquer before overcoating it with an enamel. The Easy Off stripped off the enamel like nobody’s business but the Krylon would not come off at all! It got a tad gummy but I could not clean the Krylon off my plane using Easy Off.
Eric
it was a laquer thinner. its not goo but all fine detail is gone like the wind. will i be able to salvage things ?
Lemon,
I THINK I remember someone using Westley’s whitewall cleaner to strip paint or chrome. If you have some, drop a piece of sprue in it to see what happens. It’s hell on the memory to be a geezer.
I’ll add 409 and Fantastik (household cleaners) to the list. I’ve never tried 409; but it’s supposed to work about the same as Fantastik. My experience with Fantastik is that it takes about 24 hours if you want every little bit of paint removed… Definitely not as fast as the other methods suggested, but much safer.
I’ve heard of others using Westleys, oven cleaner, and Castrol Super Clean…
This is the most extreme solution I’ve seen (NOTE THAT I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS):
http://www.scaleautomag.com/sca/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6566
Like pretty much everything in the hobby, it’s all a matter of personal taste… as long as it works, it works.