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ddaenen1

Remove paint from a lexan body without ruining the decals

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I have been searching for months now to find the Avante 2001 decal set to restore my Avante 2001. The body i have with it is in good shape but the cockpit is painted and the blue paint used for body and wing is not the boxart version so i wanted to buy a ***** body and a new decal set to make it boxart again including installing the driver but with no success to date.

Considering the above it crossed my mind that maybe i can get the paint off the current one and repaint it in the right colour with transparent cockpit without damaging the decals on the ouside as they are in mint condition.

Is this possible at all? I do not want to experiment on it as if it turns out bad, i do not have a decent body nor decals to make a new one which would be worse. If yes, please share your tips and tricks.

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I've used a car valeting product called autosmart tardis - it's a tar remover. I've been successful with an original egress shell, an original avante shell and more modern shells like my Durga. It works very quickly in some paints, much slower with others. Dip a cloth in the tardis and rub away at the paint. Tamiya do a paint cleaner which seems to smell similar so probably has similar chemical content (pear drop smell so possibly amyl acetate content).

I've heard of people using nitro fuel too.

All I can say is that I've not damaged a shell yet with Tardis

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If you are careful, and only apply the paint remover of choice to the inside of the shell over the paint, it's quite possible to remove the paint without affecting the decals.

Nitro fuel works on some paints including Tamiya's PC pot paints, and doesn't seem to affect decals, but if the paint is fuel proof such as Tamiya PS paint, it won't budge.

Parma Fashine works for removing some paints including TS lacquers.

I've heard of people using DOT3 or DOT4 brake fluid, but you have to be very careful with these, as it can be a lottery if the polycarbonate body shell will be negatively affected (crazing/cracking/becoming brittle) or not.

Acetone, Caustic soda and MEK will all ruin polycarbonate.

If the body was painted with PS paint, what you want is Tamiya's own polycarbonate paint remover. It's slow going and expensive, but it works, and you don't need to go near the decals with it. If Tardis is a less expensive replacement for it, then it would be worth checking out.

- James

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These are good tips already. I thought about protecting the decals on the outside by applying static packaging foil which i have readily available and some tape at the on the outside to seal them off, just to make sure.

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