Cleaning overspray off of plastic??????

[Ed]

I took the fresh air inlet (inside engine bay, between the radiator support and the inner fender) off my parts car because it's in better condition. The only problem is it has some overspray on it from the last paint job. Any suggestions on how to remove the paint without damaging the plastic?

[240ZX]

Try some "mineral spirits". It should not effect the plastic pieces mentioned. I think you can still buy the stuff at your local drug store. Allow the mineral spirits to soak into the paint partical for a while. It may not disolve the paint but loosen them from the plastic. It goes without saying.....always test a solutions compatibility on a small, out of sight, area before doing the entire area. Hope this helps.

[Zrush]

From a females point of view, nail polish remover will also take paint off plastic. But nail polish remover has a drying agent in it so I would do a small test spot as Tom has suggested.

Vicky

[Bambikiller240]

Be Careful, I think that nail polish remover might eat or discolor the plastic. I've tried it on a couple of different materials and it seems to be pretty tough on plastics.

[EScanlon]

2¢

First try "Wax and Grease Remover", available at your local paint shop and a lot of hardware stores. If you're not going to be doing a lot of W&G work, I think you can get it in a pint.

You'll be surprised how much overspray you will actually remove with that. Now, you didn't describe the amount of "overspray".

I've seen some of those plastic tubes for the vents have enough primer AND paint to be considered PAINTED and not overspray. With those, I've found that a gentle flexing of the part, will do a LOT of removal, you need to be careful as you are basically cracking the paint off. Now, knowing that there is so much material on the piece, I attack it with Lacquer Thinner. It's aggressive but not as much as Acetone. You basically want to soften the paint, so that repeated wipes with the thinner soaked rag will lift the paint fast, without allowing the thinner to just "sit" on the surface. If you do that, expect the plastic to become soft and sticky on the outside. If that happens, stop, allow to dry and then buff the area with some plastic polish.

Hopefully you will have removed all of the paint and primer without much damage to the plastic (remember, we were talking a completely painted part), If you accidentally left a thinner impression on it, you can buff it out with 800 sandpaper.

HTH

Enrique

[TomoHawk]

I usually just go with the usual alcohol, you get at the DIY (Home Depot) store. I've used it on many plastic r/c model (boats & car/truck bodies) with no damage whatsoever. I prefer NOt to use nailpolish remover of any kind. I'm also undecided on Mineral Spirits, but it sounds like it should be OK for that 'tough' plastic you get under the hood.

[EScanlon]

For the vast majority of plastic r/c model (boats & car/truck bodies), you're right, I would not use lacquer thinner unless I were going for a specific effect. Almost all of those plastic bodies are made with a Styrene based plastic. That's why you can glue it very readily with MEK based glues, Cyanoacrylate's, and your typical Testor's Model Glue. Although mineral spirits alone shouldn't harm the plastic, they tend to leave a thin film of goil (oily gunk). That I've found can leave fish-eye's like crazy. The Denatured Alcohol is the way to go.

From what I've seen of the plastics used on the Z, for the most part, stay away from Acetone, use lacquer thinner only after experimentation, and don't be surprised if your personal "perfect" glue doesn't work.

Enrique

[Ed]

Thanks for the advice, I had some Trestor "paint brush cleaner" (the plastic model kit stuff). Put some on a rag and rubbed it on the overspray. Two hours and a lot of elbow grease later the overspray was gone. And it didn't discolor the plastic! Looks great.

Then I set it down next to it's sister to compare and I notice that they are identical. Hmmm, are they the same? Can't be. So I compare it to the beat-up ripped one that I was replacing and it's different! I did the wrong one :stupid: