Removing PS paint....?

[Wandy]

Yeah, I know I am tediously re-asking one of the most asked questions, but......has anyone managed to find a way of removing this stuff from lexan bodies, without damaging the plastic, yet?

The last time I checked on here it was still the paint equivalent of a cockroach, impervious even to a nuclear blast.

[GregM]

Carson is selling a product called "paint killer" for polycarbonate and polystyrene bodies... however, reviews on the web say it is good for small areas, but not that great when applied on whole bodies. At least it shouldn't destroy the polycarbonate.

[JWeston]

I saw de-solv-it mentioned once. Don't use de-solv-it! It clouded a random section of a shell within seconds.

Meths has always been spot on (but lengthy) for me.

[Wandy]

Carson is selling a product called "paint killer" for polycarbonate and polystyrene bodies... however, reviews on the web say it is good for small areas, but not that great when applied on whole bodies. At least it shouldn't destroy the polycarbonate.

Hmm, interesting. Plenty of it on ebay but certainly not cheap. Would be perfect for me if it does actually work though as there are just a couple of small areas on a body that I need to address.

I still have nightmares of the day I destroyed a vintage Kyosho Optima Mid body with nitro fuel. A £70 body ruined within a couple of hours. For that reason I'm a lot more careful these days.

I saw de-solv-it mentioned once. Don't use de-solv-it! It clouded a random section of a shell within seconds.

Meths has always been spot on (but lengthy) for me.

I almost bought a huge bottle of that stuff a few months ago. Glad I didn't now.

[Percymon]

Search eBay for Autosmart Tardis. It's a car valleting product designed to remove tar deposits. I did an old vanquish body in ten minutes Sunday night (apply to cloth, rub although I've left it soak on an upturned shell for ten minutes before now. I dud an original avante body a month or so back in similar time. A Durga shell took best part of 5 hours on and off - the White paint came off in seconds, the metallic orange took forever!. My egress restore also got similar treatment, that one took a few hours in total -again different coloured paints took different times to dissolve.

I've used this stuff on at least four shells without no adverse effect -just ensure you wash the shell in soapy water before why repainting.

There are pics of the egress shell in my rebuild/restore thread. I can post a pic of the avante if you want as that is still naked. I retained the original decals on the egress, vanquish and avante by not exposing the outside to the chemical.

As it's solvent based I wouldn't advise trying it on and shells.

[bromvw]

This product is safe to use on polycarbonate but not polystrene

http://www.selden.co.uk/products/product_i...630&section=

[atf300]

Tamiya polycarbonate cleaner maybe? I have a bottle one the way to fix some over spray troubles. Might be a bit too much for a whole body. I read on URC that dot3 and dot 4 brake fluid works but one is for abs and other for lexan, not sure which is which.

[Percymon]

Tamiya polycarbonate cleaner maybe? I have a bottle one the way to fix some over spray troubles. Might be a bit too much for a whole body. I read on URC that dot3 and dot 4 brake fluid works but one is for abs and other for lexan, not sure which is which.

The Tamiya cleaner reportedly smells like pear drops, as does the autosmart tardis. I'm not for one minute suggesting they are the same but you get a lot more of the tardis product for your pound!

[waterbok]

I think the end result differs on what paint was used on the (lexan) shell, in the description of most graffiti remover it states that it removes paints that are typicaly used by graffiti sprayers.

Other paints may take longer or wont come off at all. Clouding of lexan sometimes occures when rubbing while removing the paint. If a paint was used that is agressive to lexan and then gets removed it probably also will be clouded, this most times solves itself after a new layer of fresh paint.

I only did 3 lexan shells with SoSafe, but the above describes my experience till now.

On ABS shells I had good results with natriumhydroxid.

[lawdog]

I have used DOT-4 brake fluid before with success. Time consuming, but works.

[Wandy]

Cheers for the suggestions. I do know that the PS stuff is a lot harder to remove than the old PC stuff so not sure if the graffiti remover will be good enough. I remember there was a grafitti remover that was always suggested a few years ago (can't remember the name now) and when tried it turned out to be completely hopeless for me.

[Percymon]

This was the original Avante as i received it, not sure how old the shell was but certainly it had been painted for many months if not many years...

and after stripping the shell with Tardis (total 15 minutes for the shell and wing) - original decals unaffected...

no fancy trickery with photoshop, straight out of the camera. Close up to show no effect on the lexan...

Original Egress shell, painted back in the day, part stripped..

fully stripped...

and repainted, not bad for a shell over 20 years old (ditto the undercowl and wing)..

[GlockMonkey]

I have used DOT-4 brake fluid before with success. Time consuming, but works.

Did similar to the above to remove paint from my Tamiya TT01, soaked loo roll in dot 4 and acetone nail varnish remover, covered the shell in the paper and left over night. 80% of the paint just peeled off. The rest just with soft rag and the remaining dot 4.

The paint was Tamiya spray paint.

[Wandy]

This was the original Avante as i received it, not sure how old the shell was but certainly it had been painted for many months if not many years....

Pretty cheap stuff too it seems. Will definitely give it a try.

[Kevin_Mc]

The result with the tardis is superb! I have a shell here that has a dodgy paint job, not the worst but I'd like to do it better so I'm going to give that a go.

For the record - dot 4 works brilliantly on abs shells, I stripped my clod in it and although it took two weeks of soaking and scrubbing the paint just flaked off and left pristine white shell underneath.

[WillyChang]

to all above who report 'success'... how sure are you that the paint removed really is tamiya PS spraypaint?

[Percymon]

to all above who report 'success'... how sure are you that the paint removed really is tamiya PS spraypaint?

I have no idea what paint was used on any of the shells I've stripped. As I stated different shells/paint colours have given different degrees if success in terms of speed. I sprayed up some lexan components at the weekend with fastrax spray paints, this time not cutting them out beforehand. I'll try the Tardis on the outer extremities of the mould when I come to trim them.

If Tardis doesn't work you can always use it to degrease metal parts or as a tar remover on 1:1cars.

[HunterZero]

Meths and nitro work on older paints, but don't work at all for me on PS paint. The trouble with PS paint is that once it's cured, it's fuelproof and very hard to remove. I have only had success with Tamiya polycarbonate cleaner, but it's expensive and slow going, you can only clean small 1" sections at a time. I have heard DOT3 brake fluid works OK and DOT4 works a bit better, but you have to be careful not to leave the brake fluid in contact with the lexan or there is a chance it will fog.

Haven't tried Autosmart Tardis...

- James

[rayonnair]

I've removed the dark metallic blue Tamiya PS spray paint from a lexan body using Mr Hobby thinner. It's some Japanese brand that you are more likely to find in the scale model shops than RC model shops. It took about 3-4 hours of semi-vigorous rubbing with kitchen towels. The thinner did mist over one difficult bit where I used a lot of it, scrubbed really hard and bent the lexan, but otherwise left the shell in good shape.

Picture of the thinner here: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=66517entry455959. That same thread has some pictures of the cleaned lexan shell also. You can see the misting on the insides of the wing where I had a difficult time scrubbing.

Hope that helps.