Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 5:29
AM
Subject: Paint stripping plastic
question
I've got a couple of plastic emblems that need to be stripped of paint so
they can be repainted. Any recommneded chemicials/procedures? Also for
repainting?
Thanks in advance.
Hi
Marty,
I hate to dampen your
enthusiasm........I don't mean to at all....but, you could have a problem
. There are a few traps for young players here. I have tried
stripping paint from old 'plastic' medallions, 2 or so years back. Could
never find any way of doing it satisfactorily. All the liquid strippers I
tried promptly reacted with the medallion material, turning it to a gooey
melting mess, scraping the paint off with some very fine edged tool also
didn't do it. If you sand it with the finest paper, the scratch marks will
tend to show up, especially when repainted.
Lots of experimenting led to
the best answer. In my experience, hot water, liquid soap, toothbrush, scrub,
scrub........it came off. The plastic didn't disintergrate. Looked
GOOD. Not !! Trouble was, paint, and vac metalising pick
up a cat scratch in a rhino's hide. It's so good, it's
demoralizing.
'Re-conditioning' a used 40+ year
old medallion is quite a task. I had quite a few to practice on, talked
to many people with expertise in this area.............consensus was it would
at best, produce a 'mediocre ' job.
Took a 1960 Chrysler
300F grille medallion to be 're-conditioned' . It was sent to
me to practice on by one of my fellow 300 Club Int'l members. Mine was
in such bad shape that it was out of the running for a good casting. I managed
to somehow get the red, white and blue paint off the rear, and all the flaking
silver, which was vacuum metalising, and NOT silver paint. The old medallion
was prepared as well as this guy I'd located a couple of hundred miles
away, could do it. He'd been in biz for a long time, and pre-warned me of
the most likely outcome.
See
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