I have a Testors Softail Harley I received as a gift. It is covered in cheap chrome plating that Im trying to strip using bleach but after 4 hours of submersion, the results are hardly complete.
Help with getting all this ugly chrome please!!
Thx
Try soaking it in Windex- I have heard that works.
(I hate chrome plated kits, too!)
If you’re not in a hurry, keep soaking. I’ve used vinegar before, but it takes a while too. Both leave the yellowish lacquer behind that is part of the chroming process. Use something soft to scrape it off, I used my finger nail. I’ve heard that Simple Green works really well at removing the chrome and lacquer. There are other, more toxic, ways as well… oven cleaner or Super Clean to name a few.
m@
Simple green eh? the problem is that they laid this stuff on so thick itll take days in bleach and Im worried it’ll slowly denature the styrene and make it brittle
Yes, I understand your worry. Switch to vinegar or ammonia; you might have either of those to at the house already. If I remember right, it only took a few hours in vinegar before the plating started coming off my Titanic’s screws. I had to leave it soaking overnight before it all came off.
You could also try Easy Off oven cleaner ( I had the best luck with this, and it worked fairly quick, use gloves, and keep in mind the stuff can be fairly noxious. Or Brake Fluid (the same stuff you would use in the car.
Hope it helps.
Dan
The easy off trick worked. FAST. But I think I now have cancer.
Im gonna see on a test sprue how long I can keep it in there before the styrene dissolves.
Thank You!
I have noticed that the lacquer, or whatever they use to undercoat the plating, is thick and really tough. The only thing I tried that removes it is Easy Lift-Off, ELO for short. It took a couple of days to soak and two cleaning sessions, but the coating slowly got soft and gooey, which allowed it to be laboriously scraped off. The parts were brushed with a generous amount of ELO, then left in a closed container; the product instructions tell you to avoid dunking the parts. The plastic parts survived with no adverse effects. A friend told me that ELO is nothing more than brake fluid, but I have not been able to confirm or deny this.
HTH
I just realized, while gagging on noxious fumes, that ELO (Easy Lift Off) is not the same as Easy-Off, the oven cleaner. Easy off does, however, strip chrome plating quick-fast. That is, if you dont die first from inhaling it. Off to get a respirator and a Lung Transplant!
Good old fashioned brake fluid does the trick, it does take a while though and doesn’t always get off the undercoat residue. I also use caustic soda, the powder variety that you need to add water to, but be careful as it is highly corrosive to body parts. But it gets off everything and fast also.
cheers - Leo
I would test on the ELO first. It denatured my Trumpeter cockpit tub bad to where the thing was just falling to pieces. May have been the plastic they used (from China, no less!), as I never had it happen before with other kits. Still a pre-test would be a good idea, I think.
Lol [:D] I um won’t take any credit for that, but I used to do that to strip chrome off of engine parts, so they could be re painted to look more like magnesium or aluminum or what every besides that bright chrome.
I would test on the ELO first. It denatured my Trumpeter cockpit tub bad to where the thing was just falling to pieces. May have been the plastic they used (from China, no less!), as I never had it happen before with other kits. Still a pre-test would be a good idea, I think.
Yeah, that would probably be the thing to do. I used ELO to strip the chrome and undercoat off the parts of the old 1989 Tim Burton Batmobile, but had no problems with the plastic going bad. I didn’t immerse the parts though; I just brushed the ELO on the parts and tossed them into a plastic container for about two days. The undercoat turned yellow and gooey, and had to be slowly rubbed off. I had to use a toothpick to get all the gunk out of the recessed details. After washing off the parts, I painted them with no problem.
If you choose to use ammonia do’nt leavr the plastic in too long. I destroyed several canopies and a few other model parts using that process.
I’ve used Spic and Span cleaner with great success for stripping chrome on plastic. Lately, though, the biggest issue is actually finding Spic and Span in stores any more. The company used to be made by one of the Multi-National Manufacturing Conglomerate Manufacturers™ but was spun off a couple of years ago, and because there’s no payment for product placement in your local grocery store, there’s little room for it any more. It’s good for cleaning other stuff, too, sometimes better than the stuff that’s advertised on TV every 10 minutes, so it’s worth having in the cabinet. But I digress.
Spic and Span is your friend there.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas