Tamiya Paint: To Strip or Not to Strip?

[av405]

So just to give some back story, I spray painted this car with Tamiya Primer and then 3 coats each of Tamiya white and black. I was happy with the paint job, but for the first time I decided to try to polish out the paint. I know some recommend to use clear before polishing to act as a barrier, but I didn't in this case. Long story short, I polished the white  paint to the point that I burned through it. No problem, lesson learned. At least I got a chance to practice my polishing technique. I was originally going to strip the car and start over, but wondered since the original layers of paint are already there, should I just sand and add additional thin layers of paint and then clear? If so, what grit(s) should I use? Thank you in advance.  

[Steamboat]

It's worth a try, and would save having to reshoot the primer and black paint. 

I normally use 3200 or 3600 grit before top coat.

My concern would be getting all of the residual wax from the polishing compound removed before the next coat of paint goes on. If you don't it's likely to have fish eyes. I would try to find out what the body shops use as a wax remover before paint. 

[Zippi]

Just did this.  I dipped the body in 91% isopropyl alcohol over night.  It will remove the wax.  There may be a little bit left over in the door gaps etc. but I normally do a light sanding anyway and that works for me.

[Bainford]

If it was simply polished, especially with hobby polish, there won't be any wax in it. What kind of polish did you use?

If you wish to keep the black, just wash the body in warm soapy water, scuff the white with 1000 or 1500 grit and wash again, then carry on as if you were spraying over primer. Mask off and re-paint the white. Clear coat is a personal choice. If your plan is to polish right on the paint, just lay more paint down to allow for some to be polished away. I very rarely use clear coat, and plan my paint work accordingly. I lay down extra paint, knowing I'll be removing some. I ensure that raised edges and curves have extra paint on them, as it it easy to burn through the high spots when polishing.

[Tom Geiger]

I’d save the black and respray the white. As others said, make sure you’ve cleaned out the wax. Remove it with soap etc before sanding as you just don’t want to embed it into the surface by sanding it.

I wouldn’t have waxed or cleared it.. police cars aren’t that shiny!

[Painted Black]

13 hours ago, Zippi said:

Just did this.  I dipped the body in 91% isopropyl alcohol over night.  It will remove the wax.  There may be a little bit left over in the door gaps etc. but I normally do a light sanding anyway and that works for me.

Zip, pretty sure this would remove the paint as well. I strip all lac paint with 91 alcohol...

[Zippi]

5 minutes ago, Painted Black said:

Zip, pretty sure this would remove the paint as well. I strip all lac paint with 91 alcohol...

That's interesting.  I've used the 91% alcohol for some time and it removes acrylic paints but would not remove the Tamiya lacquer or the Rust-Oleum enamel.  After 24 hrs the Testors enamel was not touched.  

[Painted Black]

 

14 minutes ago, Zippi said:

That's interesting.  I've used the 91% alcohol for some time and it removes acrylic paints but would not remove the Tamiya lacquer or the Rust-Oleum enamel.  After 24 hrs the Testors enamel was not touched.  

Alcohol will not touch enamels, the OP said Tamiya was the paint on his build.

 

I use Easy Off for enamels, for lac's its alcohol. *

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/4255-so-whats-the-best-recipe-for-stripping-tamiya-paint/

[Zippi]

7 minutes ago, Painted Black said:

 

Alcohol will not touch enamels, the OP said Tamiya was the paint on his build.

 

I use Easy Off for enamels, for lac's its alcohol. *

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/4255-so-whats-the-best-recipe-for-stripping-tamiya-paint/

Yup.  I've only used Tamiya's lacquers and the alcohol didn't work.  Maybe I need to leave it in the drink for a few days.  Haven't tried the easy off.  Thanks for the info.l    

[av405]

16 hours ago, Zippi said:

Just did this.  I dipped the body in 91% isopropyl alcohol over night.  It will remove the wax.  There may be a little bit left over in the door gaps etc. but I normally do a light sanding anyway and that works for me.

 

4 hours ago, Bainford said:

If it was simply polished, especially with hobby polish, there won't be any wax in it. What kind of polish did you use?

If you wish to keep the black, just wash the body in warm soapy water, scuff the white with 1000 or 1500 grit and wash again, then carry on as if you were spraying over primer. Mask off and re-paint the white. Clear coat is a personal choice. If your plan is to polish right on the paint, just lay more paint down to allow for some to be polished away. I very rarely use clear coat, and plan my paint work accordingly. I lay down extra paint, knowing I'll be removing some. I ensure that raised edges and curves have extra paint on them, as it it easy to burn through the high spots when polishing.

I used Tamiya polishing compounds on the roof and Meguiars on the trunk. The hood is untouched. Once I had burned through the roof, I decided to experiment on the trunk with a different brand. Your advice on multiple coats is duly noted.

3 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

I wouldn’t have waxed or cleared it.. police cars aren’t that shiny!

Oh, I know from experience. Though having a take-home car helps ?

[peteski]

10 hours ago, Zippi said:

Yup.  I've only used Tamiya's lacquers and the alcohol didn't work.  Maybe I need to leave it in the drink for a few days.  Haven't tried the easy off.  Thanks for the info.l    

Maybe your 91% IPA is not really 91%. Maybe it is diluted (either on purpose, or it absorbed moisture).  Try 99%IPA. I get mine from a hardware store. It comes in gallon tin cans (in the paint thinners section). If they don's stock it, they should be able to special order it for you.  I've seen it sold under names like "IPA99" or "Isopropanol 99".

[TransAmMike]

The paint is very smooth as far as I can tell so I don't understand the need to strip the paint off.   I would rough up the paint with a not too heavy grit sanding and top coat it again....but thats just me.

[peteski]

I think he burned through the paint on the roof.  What I'm puzzled about it that the white paint seems to have pulled away from the door line edges, and it shows black.  Is the body plastic color black?  When the body was primed (using white or gray primer) that should have prevented the paint from pulling away at the edges.

[av405]

3 hours ago, peteski said:

I think he burned through the paint on the roof.  What I'm puzzled about it that the white paint seems to have pulled away from the door line edges, and it shows black.  Is the body plastic color black?  When the body was primed (using white or gray primer) that should have prevented the paint from pulling away at the edges.

 They're not black, I think it's just the lighting that makes it look that way. 

[peteski]

1 hour ago, av405 said:

 They're not black, I think it's just the lighting that makes it look that way. 

Oh, ok.  That's weird.

If you only burned through the roof and trunk lid, why not just repaint them?  Just mask it off at the panel lines, then spray some primer and white.  Paint is white and non-metallic, so  it is easy to color-match.

Edited August 26, 2021 by peteski

[BubbaBrown]

I would wash it very very well with dish soap let it air dry mask and repaint the white. You people like to sand too much. Some of these guys sand up to 12000 before paint, that's got to be close to what you have. Your model do what pleases ya.

 

[av405]

Thank you guys for all the answers

 

[ZTony8]

Tamiya spray paint spot repairs very well. You can mask off the roof around the affected areas and just re spray them. When dry just polish the repaired area to match the rest of the roof.