Stripping Plastic Parts, Thanks NJSteve!

**SuperNovaSS** · #1 05-24-2010, 05:44 AM

I have an old Dixco hood tach that was in very good original condition but had been painted in the past by someone who did not put too much effort into their masking. The good news is, it also looks like they did not put much effort into prepping for paint either since it looked like the housing had not been sanded prior to paint.

I wanted to strip the housing without sandpaper etc. to preserve the originality of the tach. I remembered njsteve using a degreaser to strip parts on his TA project. I contacted Steve and got some details on the process and decided to dive right in.

The process is very simple. You will need a degreaser/purple cleaner such as Purple Power or Castrol Super Clean. The Purple Power was on sale at Napa for $3.99 a gallon so I went with that. All you need to do is find a suitable container to soak the parts in. Place the parts in the container and submerge them in full strength cleaner. Steve told me it could take from minutes to a few days depending on the type of paint, etc.

I let the parts sit for a day and could see the paint getting softer but did not see any delaminating. I went out of town for the weekend and just checked the parts today. The degreaser totally stripped the parts with absolutely zero damage. The paint rinsed right off with water and no scrubbing, etc.

I was hesitant to strip the lens with the degreaser. After seeing the results of the black pieces I decided to dunk the lens as well. I will post the lens results in the next few days. I thought this was a very cool process that could help many of us. Just thought I'd share.

Jason