Repainting a Diecast 1:18

[GeeTeePee]

Hey all,

I've searched and searched the forums, but have not been able to find any threads addressing my issue. So, here it goes:

I recently bought a Sunstar 1:18 replica of a 2003 Chevy Monte Carlo SS as a birthday gift for my friend. There's one problem, though: It's silver, and I want it to match his car, which is black. I've got it parted down, and I'm having the diecast metal body sandblasted to remove the paint. Here's where my questions begin:

1. If the body metal is still coarse from the sandblasting, do I need a primer before laying down the basecoat? NOTE: the basecoat is not model paint - it's automotive touch-up aerosol paint from AutomotiveTouchUp.com (I want this model to match EXACTLY to his car).

2. How can I avoid having a tacky clearcoat on the final product? I did something similar to this process with my phone's metal battery cover, and after several months the clear is still tacky - you can leave a good scratch in it if you drag your fingernail across it hard enough.

3. Obviously, the sandblasting will remove any painted/stamped-on decals/tampoes. Can I get new ones somehow (print, order, paint on by hand) or will the car have to be badge-less?

Thanks in advance for your help and time, folks!

[martinfan5]

You dont need to sand blast it, get a can of Air Craft remover, that will remove the paint , it wont take very long, and that will leave the body smooth

[Harry P.]

I wouldn't even remove the existing paint. Why bother? Just paint right over it.

[GeeTeePee]

Air Craft remover? I'm not familiar with that. What's that all about? Will it remove baked-on paint?

[GeeTeePee]

I wouldn't even remove the existing paint. Why bother? Just paint right over it.

Well, I figured that sandblasting it would be quicker and easier than sanding the whole thing down, especially when I have to get in all the small nooks and crannies of the body. My uncle has a sandblaster he'd let me use so I wouldn't be paying for it. But, if it would be better to paint right over the existing stuff, then I shall.

[martinfan5]

Air Craft remover? I'm not familiar with that. What's that all about? Will it remove baked-on paint?

Yes, I have used it to strip diecast in the past , and I would say it took less then 10 minutes to strip it, I used Rustolem Air Craft remover, can be found at Wal-Mart for a lot cheaper then at an auto parts store

Well, I figured that sandblasting it would be quicker and easier than sanding the whole thing down, especially when I have to get in all the small nooks and crannies of the body. My uncle has a sandblaster he'd let me use so I wouldn't be paying for it. But, if it would be better to paint right over the existing stuff, then I shall.

I would strip it, some diecast paints are usually really thick and hide a lot of detail,and if you are paint over that, it wont look that good, its up to you, but its a simple lets say 10 minute process of removing the paint, maybe a little longer, just depends, but it will be worth while

[AzTom]

First, Welcome to the MCM.

Sun Star made that car in black.

Now that you already have a silver one, Do strip the paint. As said above the factory paint is thick and you will have gap issues. I use Mar-Hyde Air Craft paint remover in the spray cans, available at most auto parts stores. I have tried other brands of Air Craft remover and they just are not as good.

Once cleaned off you will want to prime it with self etching primer, also from the parts store. Painting Zinc, similar to aluminum, is a little trickier than tin. Now you are ready to paint as usual.

I do not know of anyone making the decals you need.

You can post your progress in the "Diecast & Resin" section

[GeeTeePee]

Sun Star made that car in black.

Dang, really? I'd been searching for months on eBay and the only black ones I could find either had the wrong rims or had the pace car stickers all over them. But thanks for the other advice, I'll strip the paint rather than sandblast and save some hassle. But what do you mean by "gap issues?"

[AzTom]

The gap issue happens when you get too much paint around hood or doors. I did repaint one once without stripping. Even sanding all the door and hood edges off the paint still looked thick, best to strip it.

I don't remember what wheels they had. If the silver one has the correct wheels, you could just put them on the black one.

[GeeTeePee]

Thanks for your help, folks. I'll put up a thread on the Diecast/Resin forum once I can get some time to work on my project. But does anyone have any advice for clearcoating? Like I said in the initial post, I don't want my clear to end up tacky. Sure, the model won't be handled too much, but still, I want a good finish on it.

[Art Anderson]

Well, I figured that sandblasting it would be quicker and easier than sanding the whole thing down, especially when I have to get in all the small nooks and crannies of the body. My uncle has a sandblaster he'd let me use so I wouldn't be paying for it. But, if it would be better to paint right over the existing stuff, then I shall.

Any commercial sandblasting gun most likely will damage your diecast beyond saving, given that Zamak (the alloy commonly used for diecast is non-ferrous and thus is considerably softer than iron or steel. Chemical stripping would be the way to go. Look in your nearest auto supply store for paint strippers labeled "For aircraft use", as that will take that paint off in mere minutes if not seconds, and will not damage the diecast surface whatsoever.

Art

[Pete J.]

Any commercial sandblasting gun most likely will damage your diecast beyond saving, given that Zamak (the alloy commonly used for diecast is non-ferrous and thus is considerably softer than iron or steel. Chemical stripping would be the way to go. Look in your nearest auto supply store for paint strippers labeled "For aircraft use", as that will take that paint off in mere minutes if not seconds, and will not damage the diecast surface whatsoever.

Art

Definitely don't sand blast it! Art is right. I suppose you could use walnut shells or baking soda, but anything more abrasive and you will have to do a lot more than repaint. I have done one of these and the paint was really thick, but the purple pond(Castrol Superclean) did just fine at striping it. The main problem I ran into was the paint was thick for a reason. I spent a lot of time with files and sanding sticks to take all the file marks out of the metal and there were a lot of them. They really filled them with a lot of paint and once cleaned up and repainted it looked great. I used DuPont Velvaseal as a primer and that worked just fine for everything. Good luck.

[AzTom]

You can glass bead diecast with good results and no harm, although I have run across some of the powder coated farm toys that didn't work well. It was like a coat of rubber on it.

As for your clear, sounds like bad paint, or the cover have a thin layer of vinyl over it. Enamel will not dry over that.

I use Dupli-cover Acrylic Enamel in the rattle cans and get great results.

[Jantrix]

Clear coat. Since it's being painted black I would just go with Duplicolor black and clear. It's lacquer and will dry well and quickly.

[Hemified71]

GTP... I'm actually in the process of stripping/re-painting a 1:24 2013 Viper. I've done this kinda stuff before & it's pretty easy.

I used ordinary paint stripper to strip off the baked on paint...

Cleaned up the body/parts... Sanded back with 600-1000 (wet ) then used some etch-primer to seal it up...

Because I have it in my paint stash, I'll be using 2Pk Urethane Clear coat... IMO the best clear-coating for any model... Metal or plastic. Try your local auto paint shop or maybe you have a mate that has some?

Cheers

[Pete J.]

I will expand a little on my prior post. The paint on most die cast is what it is to hide the defects in the finishing. The inexpensive die casts are created as fast as possible and thus finish work is kept to a minimum.

Clean up is not difficult but the smoother the base the better the finish. Clear coat is a good choice but be sure you use the same brand of clear that you did the base coat to assure that you don't have compatibility issues. Keep the coats as thin as possible. Priming is critical to getting paint that will stay down. A good metal etching primer is the only way to go.

Painting with out stripping and repriming is a roll of the dice. You don't know what type of paint is on there and since most are made in China, it could be anything. Also, the extra layer of paint may cause fit problems with opening doors and other parts.

Once the body is cleaned, prepped and primed you are down to the same thing you would do on a plastic model. Good painting technique from there on is all you need. Here are three shots of a die cast I did a few years ago to give you an idea of what you may face and how it will look when done.

Original finish

cleaned up and reprimed

Finished with a very thin clear coat.

Edited June 30, 2015 by Pete J.

[Tom Geiger]

A few thoughts if you haven't started yet...

Aircraft Stripper - the right way to go but be very careful because it's nasty stuff!

Only use out doors. Very bad fumes. Do not breathe it!

I do this on a base of an old cardboard box, something you can fold up and throw away.

Do not let the stuff get on your skin. You will feel it immediately start to burn if you do.

Use something expendable (like an old toothbrush) to spread it across the painted surfaces. I just pour it (it's like jelly) onto the top of the body, then brush it on to all the surfaces fairly thick.

You will see it working almost immediately. The paint will come up and wrinkle. I then push most of it off the body back onto the cardboard box. You can finish the clean up with paper towels, the tooth brush etc. Once it's fairly clean you can wash it off with running water. Once clean, examine it for paint in pesky little corners, apply just a little stripper on those.

Once the body is squeaky clean, examine it for imperfections. Most of the diecast I have stripped had mold lines and other stuff you'll want to sand off.

Once I got it stripped like this, I sanded off the remaining red paint in corners and such. Look at the front fender, you'll see a mold line that needs to be addressed by sanding it down and then filling in a void there.

[Mike Kucaba]

I don't know why everyone jumps on the Aircraft Stripper bandwagon. I've used Citristrip a orange colored stripper you brush on.

There are no fumes,unpleasant odor ,and it flushes down the drain without any problems. You can even use it in the house or garage.