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paint removal


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  • 3 weeks later...

I have found that Purple Power from Walmart is great at removing paint other then duplicolor primer for some reason.I have not used any tamiya paint so I dont know about that.Otherwise it works better then I have found castrol or other brake cleaners to work and better then the alcohal.I had someold rims nothing would take the paint off, but thats sure did.It is the best and fastes thing I have found for removing chrome as well!!.

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hi guys. i was at my local pecker boys store and they don't carry purple power in gallon cans anymore. something to do with epa or some other sort of horses--t. i swear the land of fruit and nuts is getting just to stupid. the stuff is biodegradeable for crying out load. they also don't carry brake fluid or wd40 in gallon cans either. is this happening in your area?

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Thats the reason I moved out of California 15 years ago. when the epa came in and made everyone comply with their voc laws, I was doing more paperwork than painting. I moved to Idaho to live in a free society.

Years ago we used lighter fluid to strip paint from plastic. I doubt that it's still formulated the same anymore. Anyone tried it lately?

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  • 10 months later...

Fill the vessel of your choosing with CSC(I use an upside-down AMT showcase, and the base becomes the lid), and submerge the offending parts....leave them overnight or as long as you like**, then scrub them with an old toothbrush uner running water. Depending on what paint you're stripping off, odds are you will be impressed with it.

Major warning: WEAR GLOVES when working with CSC.

**I left an AMT Scirocco body sealed in a jar of CSC for about 8 months as a test, and the plastic suffered no ill effects - the 3 layers of paint, however, were history.

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Hi. Get yourself a tupperware container big enough and deep enough to sink the body and parts you want to strip. Put the parts in cover it and let it set over night. Wear rubber gloves and take a toothbrush and lightly scrub the parts then rince them. Hope this helps.

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OK... I heard this is the best stuff for removing paint from plastic... ;)

but there seems to be two types...the Castrol Super Clean ya can buy here in California that does not remove anything... ;)

and a Castrol Super Clean "Tough Cleaner" that will remove the skin from your fingers (can't buy in California)

Is this available online, mail order or will it take a small visit to a neighboring state to procure? ;)

I usually don't have to strip paint a lot, but it would be nice to have some good stuff on hand when needed

thanx

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You can also use Brake Fluid to remove paint from plastic. I have a 63 Impala that I'm restoring and was painted with who knows what, and Castrol Super Clean did not touch the paint, nor did Easy Off oven cleaner. The only thing that removed the paint was the brake fluid (NOT BRAKE CLEANER). I do use CSC to remove most paint though. It was just this paint wouldn't come off using CSC. Hope this helps. ;) Dan

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One caution with brake fluid is if you leave the plastic in there long enough, we're talking months or longer, it will rubberize the part. However, if you soak with water, it'll bring the fluid back out of the part. I've done this with scrapers I've left in the fluid for extended periods of time. Also, NEVER put resin in brake fluid, it'll turn it into goo.

However, I keep my brake fluid vat for extra special tough jobs like AMT prepaints and unknown old paint that won't strip by any other method and use CSC for everything else.

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I know that this would be the best way to strip down a model but how exactly would I do it with Super Clean?

Everything sugessted will work on some paints , not on others. Another good stripper is Dawn Power Dissolver, found by the cleaning supplies at Wal Mart and some other big stores. Works on almost every paint, won't hurt the plastic and even smells good! As with the Castrol and oven cleaner, wear gloves. Good luck, it's great to be able to redo mistakes or strip old E Bay wins!

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Everything sugessted will work on some paints , not on others. Another good stripper is Dawn Power Dissolver, found by the cleaning supplies at Wal Mart and some other big stores. Works on almost every paint, won't hurt the plastic and even smells good! As with the Castrol and oven cleaner, wear gloves. Good luck, it's great to be able to redo mistakes or strip old E Bay wins!

will this stuff take off glue?

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OK... I heard this is the best stuff for removing paint from plastic... :D

but there seems to be two types...the Castrol Super Clean ya can buy here in California that does not remove anything... :)

and a Castrol Super Clean "Tough Cleaner" that will remove the skin from your fingers (can't buy in California)

Is this available online, mail order or will it take a small visit to a neighboring state to procure? ;)

I usually don't have to strip paint a lot, but it would be nice to have some good stuff on hand when needed

thanx

I think they changed the formula when it became just Super Clean (no Castrol), there is also something called Purple Power which is similar. About 2 years ago they pulled Castrol Super Clean off the shelf in California, a few months later it was back as Super Clean and seems to be weaker. I was lucky I just happend to be going to Arizona when CSC disappeared and I grabbed a couple of bottles of the good stuff.

Super Clean and Purple Power still work, just more slowly, overnight vs a few hours.

I've also heard Simple Green works as paint remover too.

I wouldn't trust any of these on resin though unless someone has specifically tested it. Some including CSC and Purple Power can make resin into goo.

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OK... I heard this is the best stuff for removing paint from plastic... :lol:

but there seems to be two types...the Castrol Super Clean ya can buy here in California that does not remove anything... <_<

and a Castrol Super Clean "Tough Cleaner" that will remove the skin from your fingers (can't buy in California)

Is this available online, mail order or will it take a small visit to a neighboring state to procure? :P

I usually don't have to strip paint a lot, but it would be nice to have some good stuff on hand when needed

thanx

Sometime in the last few years, a private equity company bought Super Clean from Castrol. It is now called simply super Clean. While the formulation was changed slightly, it is still the same product wherever it is sold. I use it for all my paint removal with great success. I leave the parts in the SC for at least a week. It turns the paint into a powdery substance which washes off with water and a toothbrush.

BTW, it nothing more than a strong detergent. It has a PH of over 12, so is very alkaline. Use gloves while using it, and not the cheap latex kind but more substantial ones.

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Here's a part of the paint stripping process that I don't think I've ever seen covered:

Once the body has been stripped by the agent of choice, any particular steps necessary to neutralize the stripper? What about long-term effects on a painted body, if any? Does the stripper actually seep into the plastic? Does a simple soap-and-water scrubbing take care of things before repainting?

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I don't know about any of the other matierials suggested for use on here but as far as the CSC goes, after I'm done with the paint removal I simply wash all the plastic that was exposed to the CSC in regular dishwashing soap (i.e. Dawn) paying special attention to the bodylines and any molded details that could hold any of the CSC. I use a clean toothbrush to "scrub" these areas with the dishwashing liquid, rinse and air dry just like I would clean a body that hadn't been stripped. This has always worked for me. I don't know if the CSC actually gets into the plastic or not my guess would be that it doesn't since the bodies I have stripped with it look almost like brand new out of the box anyway, that's how I do it just wash it like I would any other body prior to painting.

Chris

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one thing i have found is super clean doesnt do much to tamiya paint, or at least loosens the paint very slowly. now that i think of it, it has eventually removed freshly sprayed tamiya paint, but it did take a while, like a months time, to work.

i agree with chris, i never do much more than let the piece sit in some running water for a while after doing the super clean thing, and then scrub it with dish washing soap and maybe a toothbrush. no problems with primer or further coats that ive noticed.

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For the AMT prepainted kits, 91% isoprophyl alcohol works great, & is much safer than brake fluid.

Well, except for that whole flammability thing! :lol:

I use alcohol too, but only when it's something especially tough, it does do a good job on the prepaints as well though. I just like being able to throw the body in the vat and forget it for awhile. The alcohol can work quicker, but has to be monitored, and if it evaporates, you have to start over. More of a preference thing , really.

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