Brake Fluid Fading Wheels??

[AstroVannin(2)]

I've atarted trying to restor my recently aquired Lunch Box. I've read that brake fluid is good for removing paint so I left one of my wheels in a container to soak for a day or two. The paint came off no problem, but I thought the wheels would be a brighter yellow. Is it possible that the brake fluid faded out the original colour? Is it possible to fix it?

[mr_lister999.]

i personally have never had a fading problem but i have only ever done a few shells a small mountain of wheels. No fading problems, but some cracking of the wheels.

[wldnas]

Actually I have some Pumpkin rims in the soak at the moment, and I did the same with the rims off my MudBlaster as well a few weeks ago, and YES they did come out slightly faded, and with a kinda dull texture to the plastic as well.

I know Brake fluid is DA'BOMB for stripping most paints of hard plastic parts but even still its a very corrosive liquid and must do some minor damage to the plastic surface, maybe it has something to do with the kind of paint used on the wheels before stripping as well, car based cellouse paint can really bite into cirtain kinds of plastic.

[raemin]

I am not sure the rims are abs, which would explain why break fluid corode them.

To restore the original color, just use liquid polytrol or any equivalent : it will fill all the microsocopic cavities that BF made on the plastic and you'll get back the original color. Generally speaking this product can fix most BF damage except for a totally craked item of course.

The good news is that now I've even find a distribuitor in England...

here is the link.

[AstroVannin(2)]

Ok, so the rims are fixable, at least to some extent. But, is it worth it. I mean, parts are still available for the midnight pumpkin which is the same wheels right. So would I be furthur ahead to get a new set from my LHS??

[Twmaster]

Just try and buy a new set of wheels. You can't. I've tried. You can get the tires new though. [!]

As for fading I too had a set of LB wheels fade when soaked in a citrus solvent to remove paint. The color came mostly back with the application of Armor-all.

[wldnas]

I took my Pumpkin wheels out of the "Soak" this afternoon and washed them down thoroughly and they appeared to have survived the ordeal rather well, they have no signs of the fading or the textured surface that I got on the Mudblaster wheels the week before and look to be pretty good.

I'm beginning to suspect that the kind of paint used on the wheels is probably more likely to be the cause of the fading than the use of brake fluid as a paint stripper, however the Cracking you refered to is a problem, cos when I was stripping the Mudblaster wheels, one of them suffered really badly from cracking and fell into about a dozen bits [] I managed to glue it back together of sorts but I really need to replace that wheel now [V]

perhaps old plastics become slightly pourous and the Brake fluid becomes absorbed into the plastic causing it to expand and thus crack....? it's just a theory [?]

[Shodog]

I am with wldnas on this one. I suspect it was the paint that did the damage. You should be able to polish the top layer off with some rubbing compound. Recently I saw a new set of pumpkin wheels went for $7.70 on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=44028 That was super cheap.

If anyone is interested, I have a nib set of Imex chrome rims for sale. They are just like the ones on my Pumpkin http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=8706&id=34

Jim