Paint Strippers - What to Use?

[peteski]

Heating up the stripping fluid bath to 80-90 deg. F makes it more aggressive and it works much better, even on really tough paints.  That way you don't have to result to using power tools for stripping.  You can leave styrene in the warmed up purple stuff for extended period of time, but be careful with warmed up ELO - it can slightly attack surface of some of the various styrene types.

[Helper Monkey]

I was wondering if people who use the super clean have used it to strip the Tamiya Fine White Primer from a spray can?

[dartman]

Will the store brand purple cleaner work as well as castrol super clean?

[martinfan5]

I was wondering if people who use the super clean have used it to strip the Tamiya Fine White Primer from a spray can?

Yes, it will,  the 'name brand" will do it much faster and better, the off brand, will, but you would be better off using 91% alcohol at that point

Will the store brand purple cleaner work as well as castrol super clean?

Sometimes it will , it just depends,  you are better off spending the extra couple of dollars and getting the name brand

[AzTom]

Will the store brand purple cleaner work as well as castrol super clean?

It is not called Castrol Super Clean any longer, it has been "Super Clean" for about 10 years now.  As martinfan5 stated it works WAY better then any of the other purple cleaners.  

I'm amazed that this thread is 15 pages long to cover the few methods needed.

[aurfalien]

Hi,

I've used both Super Clean and Purple Power and to me they work the same.

I'm using Purple Power now due to easy availability at Walmart, 1 gallon for 5 buks.

Tamiya laquers take about a day or 2 to srip.  Chrome, a few hours.

 

[AzTom]

I will admit it has been many years since I used the Purple Power because at that time I didn't think it worked as good on tested items.

I just did some chrome using Super Clean and it took less than five minutes, and no brushing.

You'll like this one. This pedal car was in the rafters for about nine years and got pretty dirty. I decided to get it down and clean it up, with Super Clean.  I was amazed that the gray started coming off rather easy so I just kept spraying some on, wait a few minute and scrub. Took about an hour and I had it mostly red again.  

Before

After

[Mr mopar]

I'm starting to have good luck with the purple stuff , works good on gold paint and Flat black .where easy off would not touch it.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I'm starting to have good luck with the purple stuff , works good on gold paint and Flat black .where easy off would not touch it.

Depends on the paint.

I still occasionally have issues with some flat paints. Especially flat black.

 

Steve

[showrods]

I've got a couple of bodies that I want to re-paint. I have been using "Scalecoat II wash away" as a paint remover. Not very effective and pretty pricey, $9.95 for one pint, which hardly covers a body. Any recommendations for something that will zap the paint without zapping the plastic?

I've had Scalecoat not work as it should the odd time and I think that's because the contents weren't fresh.

Get a fresh bottle and it works very well.  It's the only product I use now after trying brake fluid etc

Some paints and pigments it will ripple immediately - other paints and pigments may take a bit longer and require a scrub with an old tooth brush to help things along.  Tamiya paints will come off in seconds.  Old Testors paint will ripple quickly too.

I find the surface being stripped affects the stripping time.  Flat surfaces can be far easier to strip than say a figure kit with all kinds of creases and indents.

 

Edited November 27, 2015 by showrods

[Nowak1981]

I wish i could get the same results some of you get, this last body is really giving me trouble.

 

I messed up the body and the hood on this charger, left it in Super clean for about 3 weeks, eventually it managed to get through the paint, but its barely touching the primer.  I had it soaking int 91% alcohol for a few days and it didnt even discolor it,  Same with Brake fluid.  I still have the hood soaking in it.  The white blotch on top was an Easy off test.  Didnt even get a speck off after rubbing it.  I ended up just ordering a new body and hood.  But it would be nice to figure out how to clean this up.

 

[aurfalien]

Well, if that body is important to you, you may want to invest in an actual hobby paint stripper.

I got some dot3 at a hardware store and it didn't even do anything after a week.  I think there is a new formulation.

[bigfatforty]

What's the most effective thing to strip paint from resin parts.  I've recently lost resin parts trying to strip enamel and lacquer in  both brake fluid and 91% isopropyl alcohol.  Haven't tried the purple solvent variants yet.  Anyone have any suggestions?

[Byron5150]

Purple Power Degreaser straight by its self, strips tamiya lacquers and lacquers in general perfectly, and you can re use it afterwards. 

 

Brake fluid works well too however can ruin the plastic if left too long, Ive never left it over night tho in brake fluid. And have never tried it on resin. But Im sure the purple power would be safer on both plastic and resin. 

[slusher]

Purple Power i used last week took  overnight to remove most of the chrome and had to scrub the rest off. It must bee weaker..

[StevenGuthmiller]

The consensus seems to be that the Purple Power is weaker than Super Clean.

At least that's what I hear from people who have used both,

I've never used Purple Power myself.

I have an auto parts store 4 blocks away that sells Super Clean for $11.00 a gallon.

 

Steve

[slusher]

The consensus seems to be that the Purple Power is weaker than Super Clean.

At least that's what I hear from people who have used both,

I've never used Purple Power myself.

I have an auto parts store 4 blocks away that sells Super Clean for $11.00 a gallon.

 

Steve

I am going to change to super clean. A spray bottle lasts me for a year...

[GTJUNIOR]

I use an antiseptic liquid that we get here in South Africa called Dettol. The active ingredient is Chloroxylenol. http://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/dettol-antiseptic-500ml-126774  It took about 3 days of soaking to remove all the paint and primer with a little bit of scrubbing with an old toothbrush and it's also reusable if stored in an airtight container. Protective gear should be used as this stuff is quite strong.

Edited March 21, 2016 by GTJUNIOR

[martinfan5]

The consensus seems to be that the Purple Power is weaker than Super Clean.

Purple Power is a knock off brand to the Super Clean, that is why Super Clean is stronger.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Purple Power is a knock off brand to the Super Clean, that is why Super Clean is stronger.

That's what I have heard.

 

Steve

[martinfan5]

That's what I have heard.

 

Steve

I used to use the Purple Power, and it worked great, just never on lacquers,  I switched to Super Clean and noticed a difference for everything,  what would to take a day, took hours,  stripping chrome with the Purple stuff was hit and miss, stripping chrome with Super Clean is a matter of minutes.   Now, Super Clean will strip Tamiya lacquers, but it really only works when it fresh up to about four months in, after that, it takes a bit of time and probably just better off using 91% isopropyl alcohol,  but even then, Ive had issues stripping Tamiya lacquers with 91% isopropyl alcohol.

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

I used to use the Purple Power, and it worked great, just never on lacquers,  I switched to Super Clean and noticed a difference for everything,  what would to take a day, took hours,  stripping chrome with the Purple stuff was hit and miss, stripping chrome with Super Clean is a matter of minutes.   Now, Super Clean will strip Tamiya lacquers, but it really only works when it fresh up to about four months in, after that, it takes a bit of time and probably just better off using 91% isopropyl alcohol,  but even then, Ive had issues stripping Tamiya lacquers with 91% isopropyl alcohol.

 

The only thing I have ever had problems stripping with Super Clean are some primers & a few flat paints.

 

Steve

[martinfan5]

The only thing I have ever had problems stripping with Super Clean are some primers & a few flat paints.

 

Steve

Agreed, and same here,  hit or miss say trying to strip Tamiya primer, sometimes it takes right off , some times it doesnt. 

[Mike Kucaba]

I wish i could get the same results some of you get, this last body is really giving me trouble.

 

I messed up the body and the hood on this charger, left it in Super clean for about 3 weeks, eventually it managed to get through the paint, but its barely touching the primer.  I had it soaking int 91% alcohol for a few days and it didnt even discolor it,  Same with Brake fluid.  I still have the hood soaking in it.  The white blotch on top was an Easy off test.  Didnt even get a speck off after rubbing it.  I ended up just ordering a new body and hood.  But it would be nice to figure out how to clean this up.

 

Is this a diecast/ If so just get some stripper MEANT for stripping metal. I use an orange smelling stuff called Citri-strip.

[ChrisBcritter]

In case it helps anyone working with an X-El (Jo-Han promo reissue) body - I'm stripping the factory burgundy paint off the '59 DeSoto; I sanded it lightly per usual and put it in the purple stuff (Zep brand from Home Depot). After four days I got what looked like lacquer checking on it, but nothing more; so I brushed on a bunch of DOT-3 brake fluid and that got things moving. There are still a few stubborn areas around the trim so I'll tackle it again later tonight.