Best way to remove paint from plastics...

[don_gibb6512]

I can't seem to find any hard evidence that supports brake fluid at the DOT 3 level or lower doing any damage to the type of plastic that the side panels and fenders are made out of that Suzuki put on these bikes. If someone can send a link, that would help but as of right now, I don't think it will do any harm at all.

[cyclefvr2]

Hmmm. Haven't heard that before. I used brake fluid to remove the paint from both my side covers and the front fender and haven't had any problem with the new paint. That's been about 2 years now. Will have to do some research on this. Thanks for the tip.

you got lucky i guess, brake fluid is terrible for anything to do with paint, i would not even try it, i was just trying to keep fellow riders from ruining there parts is all, i do know it eats paint and leavs a residue
it has fish oil, or some kind of oil? in it, and plasrtic soaks up oil
u put it on plastic master cyls ect... it brings out the color,, i would steer clear of it any painter would tell ya that , even oil off your fingers will get into the primer,or bare parts

[tkent02]

I have an extra side cover, with cracks and everything, and a little soda blaster gun, I can try this.

tried it, didn't do much, polished up the old paint is about it.

[Nessism]

you got lucky i guess, brake fluid is terrible for anything to do with paint, i would not even try it, i was just trying to keep fellow riders from ruining there parts is all, i do know it eats paint and leavs a residue
it has fish oil, or some kind of oil? in it, and plasrtic soaks up oil
u put it on plastic master cyls ect... it brings out the color,, i would steer clear of it any painter would tell ya that , even oil off your fingers will get into the primer,or bare parts

Used brake fluid on the tail and one of the side covers on my bike. Washed off the brake fluid with soap and water, then used common paint prep degreasing agent. No problems. The plastic is ABS I think and doesn't seem porous as near as I can tell.

[wirelessguy]

Holy crap man, be careful using paint stripper on plastic parts. May be okay if not left to dwell too long, but sounds risky to me.

Nah, I'm not a big believer that this stuff is anywhere near as powerful as it used to be.

Trust me, if I'm having to re-apply for multiple coats just to get the paint to bubble off I'm not to frightened of eating away at the plastic.

As stated previously, I'd be way more worried about having brake fluid seep into my plastic and making it too slick to paint on ever again.

[Jason the terminator]

I have been looking for a good answer for this and here is what I have found. People have done both of these for vintage interior car plastic.

Method 1

Spray with heavy duty oven cleaner, wrap in plastic and set in the sun. Do not let dry and paint should peel off. Works best above 70 deg.

Method 2

#7 bead in a blasting cabinet.

Now these were interior pieces and did not have a clear or primer on them. Don't know how much of a difference that would make other than more layers to be removed. I would suggest taking care in trying any method. I have seen paint remover warp and bubble plastic and would be very careful if you tried this. Maybe acetone or lacquer thinner with some 0000 fine steel wool would work.

[Johnny Drummond]

Hi guys, this all sounds good-BUT as a spray painter with over 20 years practice the only way to get paint trouble free off plastic parts is sanding,sanding,sanding and just when you no longer think you have any fingerprints left,yep you guessed it sand some more! start with 180 wet and dry,get ALL the paint off with that then work down to 1200 wet and dry via 240,320,600,800&1000 grade paper(to eliminate all the coarser sanding marks) use warm water and washing up liquid(amaze your wives/partners with the amount of time you spend at the kitchen sink)as a lubricant for the sandpaper. When you are ready to spray go to your local auto parts supplier and ask for BAR COAT, this is a paint that you don't thin,just spray on and let dry then if you missed any old paint/polish whatever paint you put on won't react and blister(unlike your fingers!!!). Paint strippers soften permenantly the first few microns of the plastic which means that whatever paint you apply will never properly dry-even if you put 2 part lacquer over it, have a guess how I found all this out?. Sorry to put a downer on some good ideas but as I said after 20+ years in the buisness I've tried most of these things and all that works 100% of the time is hard work Sorry!!.Johnny

[tkent02]

I have a junk side cover soaking in Superclean now, I'll let you know how it turns out.

[salty_monk]

The covers I did for the 750... I just sanded down what was there to give it a good "key" & went over the top.

[cyclefvr2]

a dremel comes in handy, well worth the money

[7th day]

Plastic paint stripper here under the aircraft tab. No experience with the stuff so this is not a recommendation.

http://www.kleanstripauto.com/

[don_gibb6512]

Well, all I can say is that I used brake fluid on the front fender and both side covers and the primer and paint dried without any problems at all. The only thing I wish I would have done differently was to put clear coat on it.

[tkent02]

I have a junk side cover soaking in Superclean now, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Not so good, after one day soaking, didn't touch the paint at all. The rest of it is really clean!

Going to try some oven cleaner next.

[hikermikem]

Not so good, after one day soaking, didn't touch the paint at all. The rest of it is really clean!

Going to try some oven cleaner next.

I was curious about that stuff as well, seems to have quite the endorsement from several here... hope it's not a "half-baked" idea

[hikermikem]

Thannks for all the input guys...

I appreciate all the thoughts, suggestions, warnings & empirical testing you guys have offered!!

Using chemicals to remove the paint certainly seems like the easy way to go (better living through chemistry), but it scares me a little. I'm the one-in-a-million guy that would have all my plastics melt before my very eyes .

I guess wet sanding is the "gold standard" of paint removal - sounds like work to me however.

But, I have all winter to get these pieces sorted out, as it's too cold here now to paint.

Thanks again for all the responses.

mike