Stripping a prepainted...

[KWT]

Not finding exactly what I'm looking for in an answer, I figured I'd ask...

What is the best way to strip this down to nothing?

Any and all advice appreciated.

[Dave G.]

I just stripped a Revell 69 Mustang .  Everything just basically came apart at the glue joints breaking glue and not plastic ( todays orange tube testors glue is not what it was in the 1960's). Then it took a 3 day bath in Purple Power. Each day I was able to brush more paint off till I was left with just part of the hood paint and the roof but a simple kitchen spoon scraped it right off after the 3 day softening without marring the plastic.

I'm just about ready to re prime now ( assuming my brain doesn't start misfiring and telling me I need to do fender well alterations). No harm done to any plastic,not even the clear. By the way the Purple Power ate away the BMF before any paint, that was basically gone over night. Good luck with yours ! The Mustang was all acrylic paint with clear lacquer over it.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Dave G.

[Snake45]

5 hours ago, KWT said:

Not finding exactly what I'm looking for in an answer, I figured I'd ask...

What is the best way to strip this down to nothing?

Any and all advice appreciated.

Is that plastic or a diecast? If it's a diecast, you can either just take the graphics off with non-acetone nail polish remover, or strip it back to metal with "aircraft stripper" (DON'T use the purple pond or anything else lye-based). 

If it's plastic, you can try the purple pond or Easy-Off. But last weekend at the local toy show, a guy told me that NOTHING he'd tried including brake fluid would take the pre-paint off an AMT Phantom Vickie (purple with graphics). 

[Dave G.]

Good one Snake, I hadn't considered it might be diecast !

[BigTallDad]

8 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Is that plastic or a diecast? If it's a diecast, you can either just take the graphics off with non-acetone nail polish remover, or strip it back to metal with "aircraft stripper" (DON'T use the purple pond or anything else lye-based). 

If it's plastic, you can try the purple pond or Easy-Off. But last weekend at the local toy show, a guy told me that NOTHING he'd tried including brake fluid would take the pre-paint off an AMT Phantom Vickie (purple with graphics). 

What if it's resin?

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, BigTallDad said:

What if it's resin?

Prepainted resin? 

[Jhedir6]

2 hours ago, BigTallDad said:

What if it's resin?

If it's resin do not use IPA, IPA will turn resin into soup. Or atleast that was my experience.

If its a prepainted plastic kit, IPA works. I used it on one of the Foose predecorated kits and it striped it down to the bare plastic no problem. Super Clean wouldnt touch the clear on it hardly at all.

If it's diecast, as stated above, dont use Super Clean, it makes the metal brittle. It'll take the paint off sure, but it eats at the metal, found that one out the hard way too.

 

[BigTallDad]

38 minutes ago, Jhedir6 said:

If it's resin do not use IPA, IPA will turn resin into soup. Or atleast that was my experience.

If its a prepainted plastic kit, IPA works. I used it on one of the Foose predecorated kits and it striped it down to the bare plastic no problem. Super Clean wouldnt touch the clear on it hardly at all.

If it's diecast, as stated above, dont use Super Clean, it makes the metal brittle. It'll take the paint off sure, but it eats at the metal, found that one out the hard way too.

 

What is IPA?

[Jhedir6]

2 hours ago, BigTallDad said:

What is IPA?

Isopropyl Alcohol. Or rubbing alcohol. The stuff you get at the dollar store is like 70% you want the stronger 90%+ you can get at the drug stores. I get mine in the US at Target usually when I'm over the border cause no one in my small town carries it. Just put it in a large container with a lid and soak what you want to strip(not resin). Paint, chrome on plastic. I haven't tried it on a diecast. I have one bath of each of IPA and Super Clean I use to strip paints/chrome.

[Plowboy]

With prepainted models, I've found that they don't have much paint on them anyway. So, I just give them a good sanding with 400 grit, follow with 600 and primer as usual. 

[BigTallDad]

3 hours ago, Jhedir6 said:

Isopropyl Alcohol. Or rubbing alcohol. The stuff you get at the dollar store is like 70% you want the stronger 90%+ you can get at the drug stores. I get mine in the US at Target usually when I'm over the border cause no one in my small town carries it. Just put it in a large container with a lid and soak what you want to strip(not resin). Paint, chrome on plastic. I haven't tried it on a diecast. I have one bath of each of IPA and Super Clean I use to strip paints/chrome.

Thank you for the clarification.

[KWT]

It is an AMT plastic "promo" of sorts.

Thanks for the info gents.. I'll see if I can make some head way on it.

[Ace-Garageguy]

A lot of model train rolling stock is pre-painted styrene. The go-to stripper of choice for model RR stuff, one that I've used very often myself, is 91% isopropyl alcohol. Soak overnight.

Don't bother with 70% though. It won't do diddly...though it makes a great pre-paint fisheye killer.

[Mark]

The 91% rubbing alcohol makes short work of the paint on AMT and Polar Lights prepainted kits, should do the same with the promo as well.