Stripping / Removing Paint From Plastic??

[MOPARHOUND!]

Would like to freshen up the dash pieces on a 69 Charger, but they have been spray bombed in the past to the point that the "grain" is disappearing.  The pieces appear to have flat spots in places due to the amount of paint.

How would you remove the old paint, without destroying the plastic or the "grain" of it??

[73rallye440magnum]

My guess would be to blast it in a cabinet with some form of fine abrasive, I would guess someone here has done it before and will know what to do. Lacquer thinner or paint thinner might deteriorate the plastic. Good luck, be sure to post pics!

[JimShine]

I used lacquer thinner recently on both plastic and pads and had good luck (acetone ruins them). In the past i have also used brake fluid, though it takes a long time to work.

[69fourspd]

I also used lacquer thinner recently with good results.  Takes a lot of coats since the thinner evaporates so fast, but gets the job done.

[73rallye440magnum]

There ya go Moparhound! Take pictures.

[wLc]

Could one use mineral spirits without wrecking the plastic? Or is that like acetone?

[JimShine]

Mineral Spirits only really works on certain paints (like oil based paints). Usually not anything that comes out of a spray can. I swear, with some care lacquer thinner is fine. As a matter of fact minutes ago I cleaned some overspray off my VIN tag with lacquer thinner and it ddn't hurt the white screening or the black at all. I took a chance because it was not the best looking before anyway (has spots of missing black paint). The try is not to saturate and don't spend too much tome on it. If you need to expose it to more than a few seconds of thinner at a time, take breaks and allow the item to dry.

[wLc]

Thanks Jim. I was just wondering because I was going to repaint my dash plastic and all I had in my shed was mineral spirits. I guess I'll be making a trip to Wal-Mart tonight.

[grek]

Thanks for asking the question and the responses.  I too was wondering how to remove the orignal paint on my plastic dash pieces off my 69 charger.  Several months ago, I attempted to remove the paint with paint thinner however it didn't even touch paint, I tried using a tooth brush with basically no affect to the paint. 

Grek

[JimShine]

grek, you may have to do some experimenting. Not all paints are the same and sometimes you need to try different things to find what will remove it. Test an area not realy visable to see how it treats the vinyl first. I had a horn pad one that was painted with something thinner wouldn't touch. Acetone did the trick, but melted the vinyl and dulled the grain where I tested it. I ended up using brake fluid as it stripped the paint (slowly) and didn't hurt the vinyl.

[grek]

Jimshine,

Thank you for the additional info.  I'll be buying some brake fluid this weekend.

Grek

[ScottW]

A buddy of mine (Pontiac guy) sent me a thread from his site awhile back and they were using Easy-Off to remove paint from plastic. I never got around to try it though. I think all they did was spray it on and put it in a plastic bag an let it sit. I'll see if I can dig up the thread.

[ScottW]

I was google-ing around and found this link - modelers site. Worth checking out.

http://www.bonediggers.com/1-3/strip/strip.html


I see they have a few mopars in thier test subject list.

[Dennis K]

ScottW beat me to it. I didn't know about the article that he posted, but Castrol Super Clean is the best way to remove paint from plastic. You need to submerge the part in the cleaner for a while for it to work. It doesn't work to just spray it on, or it will dry. It needs to be kept wet until the paint is gone.

[miamivice]

in all my years in building miniatures and terrain piece ive always used Pinesol.   it works very well, just soak it in there for a while and use a toothbrush or something and scrub it off.........be sure to wash all the stuff off when done though.   
alot of people have used easy off oven cleaner or break fluid too however w/ those you have to be carefull of not letting it soak for too long because it can melt the plastic

[BigBlockSam]

hey guys
  good thread, alot of helpful info. thanks,  Rene

[grek]

All,

I used some easy off on my plastic trim and it did the trick.  Two separate nights I saturated the plastic piece, placed it in a zip lock bag for 15 minutes, removed it and the paint came off.  Had to use a tooth brush and a pin to get in the grain crack areass.  Thanks again for everyone's input and info on this topic.

Grek