What do people do to strip factory paint ?


J

JimT

Member
First if this has been covered lead me to it and I'll shut up. Here goes, stripping paint.

Previously I used brake fluid, then some transparent blue stuff that came in liter bottles from the hobby shop. I also had a large (16 inch capacity) ultrasonic cleaning rig that would work on any metal but might melt plastic.

Where are we now? Do I go back to brake fluid from the dollar store?
 
Non Caustic Oven Cleaner sounds like a contridiction in terms. Give me some brand names so I can see if they are available here. Possibly being from Oz I might have some trouble locating them same ones.
 
91% alcohol in a sealed container for a a full day or castrol super clean if the alcohol doesn't work.
 
Do you wash the parts in the sink afterward, let them air dry? What is Castrol Super Clean? I used Castrol in my bikes in the way back. Is it a car cleaning goop:?
 
JimT said:
Do you wash the parts in the sink afterward, let them air dry? What is Castrol Super Clean? I used Castrol in my bikes in the way back. Is it a car cleaning goop:?
Click to expand...

I was everything with warm water and dawn dish soap. The castrol super clean is a degreaser but it works wonders on taking paint off. It still has to soak for a few hours but it works, and if soaked to long the glue holding detail parts will get eaten away. BUt if you stripping a loco i dont see that as an issue. I got the superclean at autozone by the heavy axle greases and filters. Big purple spray bottle. Just dump it all into a container.
 
Castrol super clean is a concentrated cleaner found at Wally world etc. IIRC its now just called Super Clean. Do not use brake fluid. Some companies use a type of plastic that will react in brake fluid, and become brittle and crack. Kato is notorious for this. 91% Alcohol is a better start. Next is Scalecoat's wash away. Wash Away is designed specifically for plastic. Costs a little more, but lasts for ages.
 
I didnt give a brand name because I don't know what brands are available in the USA but here in Australia I use MrMuscle Oven Cleaner
 
OK, first I tried Alcohol, tall glass contaier. Result on old, baked LifeLike reefer. 12 hours minimal stripping. The oven cleaner on a 2nd LL car, blized the paint in 30 minutes.

So phase two, tried the oven cleaner on a passenger car, (Roundhouse?) in "Daylight" paint and lettering. So sad. 24 hours, very little result. Day 2 still very little so I went to the Dollar store and bougt 42 oz of brake fluid. Same type of container, hour later paint falls off with a dish brush, car undamaged, I'm currently cleaning up the first car. Guess I'll clean my oven.

I'm sure if I could make the vessels vibrate at high speed we would be talking just a few minutes to clean. JimT

Oh tried a 1970's Athearn car with oven cleaner, left it spotty after 8 hours oven cleaner.
 
New experiment, (bold one) I had a nearly antique Pennsylvania caboose, decalled for Pennsylvania, which I wanted off. I took some oven leaner and sprayed it into a pottery (not plastic) saucer. Maybe 4 drops of liquid once the foam bubbled away. With a big model paintbrush, a big one I put it on the decal 30 later I could wipe it off with all the decal material. Quickly did the other side and rinsed the car with tap water, no decals.

Neat, I've never seen that happen before. I will have less trepidation when buying used cars, and loco's.
 
New experiment, (bold one) I had a nearly antique just beautiful Pennsylvania caboose, decalled for Pennsylvania, which I wanted off. I took some oven cleaner and sprayed it into a pottery (not plastic) saucer. Maybe 4 drops of liquid once the foam bubbled away. With a big model paintbrush, a really big one I brushed it on the decal, 30 later I could wipe the decal off with all the decal material coming away neatly. Quickly did the other side and rinsed the car with tap water, no decals.

Neat, I've never seen that happen before. I will have less trepidation when buying used cars, and loco's.
 
I use Chameleon paint remover as it's re-useable. Its a very strong detergent. Just pour it through a coffee filter back into the bottle. I stripped the factory paint off of 15 Athearn heavyweights! No issues. Soak for a couple of hours and scrub with epoxy brush. Wash off with 409 type spray and some water.
 
Of course the ultimate stripper is a blasting cabinet with an air eraser. On the few things that Scalecoat's wash away stripper won't get, baking soda at about 35lbs of pressure will remove and not damage plastic. For metal, I use 220grit Aluminum Oxide. Gets every bit of paint off.
 
Gravity Feed, its a Harbor Freight Air Eraser. I had a Passche, but it only lasted about a year. I'm into my 4th with this one.

I also "spray" at a very shallow angle. The soda is pretty soft and unless you're spraying directly onto the plastic at a 90` angle and are about 1" away, its really hard to damage the plastic with the soda. The 35lbs seems to be about ideal for the soda, as when I'm using the AlO2, I'm spraying it at about 50lbs.
 
I'll try that with my pressure pot. I have a nozzle the size of a pencil for fine work on glass. We make photo stencils for some of our glasswork that take really low pressures or they get blown off the item. It really leaves a clean impression line though.
 
Yesterday, I bought a can of spray Oven Cleaner to remove the paint of an old Bachmann Box Car. Sprayed the cleaner on and, basically forgot about it for around 4 hours. Went back and wiped of the cleaner and was left with nothing more than a "very clean and shiny" box car with all of the paint and decals still perfectly in tact.

I am thinking that it depends on the model and the brand of Oven Cleaner used, considering the great success that some people have had with it in a very short time frame.

Anyway, as this box car was to be used for painting practice only, I rinsed the thing in water and sprayed it with Krylon Grey Primer leaving the original paint and decals in place. So far so good.
 
I've always had good luck with alcohol, but it does have to be 91%. If you use the standard 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol you might as well be using water. No effect. On some models it strips it right down to the plastic very quickly. On others, well...

There is some factory BASE paint that the alcohol doesn't take off right away. It doesn't even seem to be brand specific because my Kato F7's cleaned right off in a flash, while my Kato SD90's were a bit more stubborn. I'm assuming it probably would end up taking it all off if left to sit long enough, because it does turn the alcohol that color. With enough time, then, it will obviously turn loose even if a little bit of toothbrush style encouragement is needed. Thing is, the factory base paint is so thin that I'm not sure it matters whether you strip it off or not. The alcohol does quickly take off all the stripes, letters, numbers, what have you completely, and those are what will show through as bumps in the new paint. I've had very good luck with just removing all of that and not worrying if every bit of base coat is off of the model. I honestly can't tell the difference between the ones that were completely stripped and the ones that still had a little of the base color coat left.

I do know that oven cleaner will actually turn Kato bodies brittle if I recall correctly, and I've also heard someone say that brake cleaner will do damage if left too long (but this guy was talking days, not hours). I've also had Tony's experience where the oven cleaner that strips off one brand doesn't even touch the next. So FAR I haven't run across that with 91% alcohol. It's stripped (at least mostly) whatever I've put in it.

In any case, I'm just always worried that I'll dip the wrong thing into the wrong chemical and end up with goo. The 91% isopropyl works well, is fairly non-toxic and pretty much worry free. My two cents.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top