Paint job removal

J

Jake bowler

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What’s the best stuff that I can pick up to remove a really crappy paint job?

 
assuming you have read up on the UK law and two tone stuff and UKARA. 

it depends a bit on how thick the paint job was applied on how much work you will have. Also what it has been painted on will be important.

Ive had success with Methylated spirit (screwfix). Just dab an old cloth in it and wipe the paint off if the gun is plastic based, it will leave white fogging on the black(?) original colour, so best is to respray it with a new layer of black.
If it is metal, you can just give it a bath in the stuff, and leave it for an hour or so and it will just fall off. however i have not tried this myself yet.  

 
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Dail paint and varnish remover will stripe the paint off most guns as they don't tend to be painted with super high quality paint, strip the gun, paint on the Dail paint remover wait 30 minutes or so and your see the paint start to bubble and be eaten away you can then start wiping it off, repeat as needed.. 

As with any paint remover do a test section first ?

 
Get some paint thinner and an old tooth brush and just scrub it away. Paint remover is messy.

 
What about the risk of damage to the original finish.

If it was a black metal gun would the original surface be paint or some sort of anodising?

I assume the strpper would take it down to the bare metal.

 
Standard thinners, on a rag. Most likely just be able to wipe it away 

 
Rogerborg said:
White spirit, acetone, turpentine, naphtha, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone, dimethylformamide, 2-butoxyethanol, ethylbenzene, xylene, n-butyl acetate, butanol?
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Some paint thinners (namely, white spirit) actually eat away at plastic and at polyurethane finishes so it's best to get simple anti-bloom paint thinners for use with the likes of cellulose. Last time I tried white spirit it stripped away big chunks of the plastic drum I was using to mix it with paints, lol

 
Graydar said:
Get some paint thinner and an old tooth brush and just scrub it away. Paint remover is messy.
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QFT.

Graydar said:
Some paint thinners (namely, white spirit) actually eat away at plastic and at polyurethane finishes so it's best to get simple anti-bloom paint thinners
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OK, so white spirit, acetone, turpentine, naphtha, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone, dimethylformamide, 2-butoxyethanol, ethylbenzene, xylene, n-butyl acetate, butanol?

 
Rogerborg said:
OK, so white spirit, acetone, turpentine, naphtha, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone, dimethylformamide, 2-butoxyethanol, ethylbenzene, xylene, n-butyl acetate, butanol?
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Not sure - I bought my thinners a while ago for the express purpose of spray painting so whilst they don't contain white spirit, turpentine or acetone, I'd have to check up on it to see what it's based on. Just make sure it doesn't dissolve your polymer body 1st tho?

 
Sure, and no offence intended.  I just wanted to highlight that "paint thinners" could contain just about anything.

Personally I had good results from isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) on a couple of fairly fresh paint jobs.  It did slightly dessicate the cheap plastic stock on my CYMA though, so go carefully.

 
Nitro Mors is a strong paint stripper.  Strongly advise to find something to test it first.

 
Dino said:
Nitro Mors is a strong paint stripper.  Strongly advise to find something to test it first. 
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How recent is...

Nitromors doesn't have dichloromethane in it any more, and IME the post-2009 product was useless.  Apparently they improved it in 2016, but you'll need to keep agitating it and working it into the paint.

Starchem Synstryp appears to still have dichloromethane in it, or you could just jump on eBay and buy neat dichloromethane. If you do either, I would (in all seriousness) treat it with respect.  Sealed eye protection, thick nitrile gloves, and use it in the open, standing upwind.

 
I rob my mrs nail varish remover, does the job if you use a toothrush and a small amount on it at a time, may take a while but certainly better than using thinners that can be way to strong and possibly damage certain areas/materials.

 
Depends on the paint and the base materiel.

On metal where you have stripped off every plastic part - Dichlo. Nothing is faster or cleaner. Just treat it like sewerage. Gloves on, Mask on, Eye pro on. Ventilation. And correct clean up of cloths. It wasn't banned because of it's affects on humans, it was banned because of it's effects on fish and aquatic life, and the fact industry was dumping loads of it. For a small job like a gun, and with the correct clean up then it'll be fine.

On plastic get some modellers paint stripper. Not a fast product and it won't touch enamel finish, but it should work. You do need to be careful tho. Some of them will attack plastics and it doesn't peel the pain like dichlo, it'll soften it so you can peel/scrape it off.

The other option is to mechanically remove it. Wet and dry paper, and a sharp gouge/razor blade can do a lot of stripping.

For aluminium if you have gone through the black surface layer you can always re-black it. Aluminium black is easy to get hold of and will chemically colour the metal much like a gun black. Birchwood casey do a product specifically for this. It's not a professional finish and not as durable as anodising, but it's better than grubby looking metal parts.

 

 
Would aluminium black do a beter job than Krylon paint?

Does it work on cheap alloys?

How many coats would it take?

 
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