By kush on Unrecorded Date: Edit

What's the best way of taking 2-3 coats of paint off of ABS?

By George E. Gorman (Georgegorman) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Kush
I use to build models a lot and formula 409 cleaner takes paint off the models if soaked over night. might give it a try! george

By Bruce on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Brake fluid takes paint off of most anything. I used it to clean paint off of the decals on my Attex after someone repainted the entire machine, decals and all. Works great.

By liflod (Liflod) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I would definately try a pressure washer. If you do not have one, go to the local car wash with a pocket full of quarters! I'm sure if they did not prepare the surface correctly, the paint should fly right off.

By kush on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I will try some of the ods in a few days & post my results. Right now my son & I are using an abrasvive cleanser with a sanding sponge. Slow & not the best way.

By Bruce on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Try the brake fluid, If you let it sit for a few minutes the paint will just wipe right off. I used it with fine steel wool because I did not want it to sit too long, later I found out that the spots I missed when wiping it off, just wiped clean. Really worked great for me. I once cleaned a plexiglass sign this way and I did clean all the camo paint off of my Attex windshield with it. No fogging, no problems...worked for me.

By kush on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Tried the Brake fluid, but just wiped it on & off. No success. I'll try leaving it on longer.

1750 PSI & 1.5 GPM pressure washer did nothing.

MAybe I'll rent a HD one, but the small one was easy to borrow & try.

Elobow grease & sandpaper still #1.

By Bruce on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Leave the fluid on for a while,( even over night) the paint on my machine wrinkled up after a while, then just wiped off. You may want to try a fine steel wool with the brake fluid, thats what I used up until I found that leaving the fluid on would result in just wiping it off. Hope it works for you as well as it did for me.

By kush on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I tried the 409 & that worked a little bit. I gues either the brake fluid or 409 will work if left on long enough. What i need now is a tank big enough to dip the whole body in! I probably need a tank full of cash to afford the tank full of 409 or brake fluid.


Has anybody tried having their bodies (ATV) commercial dipped?


Or how about plasting bead blasting or any other non-damaging type of pressure blasting?

By philip osborn on Unrecorded Date: Edit

years ago i tried removing the paint off the number plates of a motorcross bike. i used paint remover and it immediately came off. now i know that the plastic was polyethelene. i am not sure what affect it will have on abs, but you can try a small test spot first.

By Attex Bob on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Plastic bead blasting will work great. No damage at all to the body.

By ISAAC EISENMAN (Tropicjungleboy) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

HEY KUSH:
to remove paint from aatv body use paint/decal remover...you can find it on paint section at any hardware store.........after all this is an specific product made for this task...be aware of use plastic gloves and well ventilated area...otherwise you will feel like been with your aatv on the moon!!!!! enjoy stripping the paint!!!!!!!

By kush on Unrecorded Date: Edit

If I had money www.dryiceblasting.com would seem to do the trick. I have both a pressure & siphon sandblaster. Just have to get the right media to blast with.


Any ideas? I'm going to check out Northern Hydraulics or Harbor Freight. I believe they have different media for blasting.

By liflod (Liflod) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Be very careful using plastic media for blasting. The plastic comes in different sizes and hardness. My friend runs a media blasting operation. Low pressure/ high volume is used and that is why it is very gentle to the surface. I believe his machine runs at 5-7psi through a 3/4" gun. I would suggest using a syphon type blaster and use the lowest pressure you can. New media is very sharp and will dig more into the surface. If you can find some that is used or manufactured with out the sharp edges, it will be less likely to dig in the plastic. Have you tried spray paint remover(aircraft stripper). I have used it to remove overspray on the inner wheel wells of my van after it was painted. The wheel wells are plastic and the paint came right off and the plastic was as good as new. Like anything else, experiment on a hidden place first. Even on a spot without paint, you will be able to see if it harms the plastic. Keep posting the results so we can keep up with your progress.

By kush on Unrecorded Date: Edit

If I find the time, I'm going to try something called washing soda. It's listed as homemade paint striper on some DIY sites. Walnut shells or corn cobs might be a better blasting media.

I should tally everything up give a rundown on what works best when I'm finished.

By kush on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Here's an update. I rented a 3,000 psi pressure washer. Sorry I didn't get the GPM. I took some paint off, but not easily. I think an even higher pressure might have beem the trick. I rented it for 2 hours to see what it could do. On worn areas or rounded corners the paint came off easily. On the underside of the body that stuff is till on. I'm going to try a finish sander with
400 or higher grit paper.

I'll keep everyone posted.

By Sidney Webb (Sidneywebb) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Be careful using brake fluid on any plastic. I drive a Goldwing motorcycle (when not playing with gokarts and my Scrambler). I once had a bottle of brake fluid spill inside the trunk. It cost me the trunk. That type of plastic, at least, was "rotted" by the fluid. Took nearly a year after I cleaned it up before the bottom finally fell out, right in the corner where the spill occurred. Keep application time to a bare minimum for safety.

By Eric Schultz on Unrecorded Date: Edit

3M makes a product called "Safest Stripper"
I think I used this product to remove paint from a fiberglass item a few years ago. Test it on a scrap piece of the type of plastic you want to remove the paint from first and see if it will remove the paint without damaging the plastic. It seems to be safer than methlene chloride based products, it says on the jug use indoors or out and no gloves required , but it is slower acting.