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Removing rattle can from OEM paint

Lurch

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Long Beach, CA
Is there a chemical stripper out there that can be used to remove spray paint from on top of OEM paint without damaging it?

I have some plastic parts that the previous owner painted black and would like to bring them back to the OEM color, if possible.
 
Depends on the rattle can, but you could try acetone. Try to work quickly, I have used it on OEM paint before without it affecting anything but I give no guarantees as to how long that will hold true for.

On the other hand it tends to dissolve rattle can in a real hurry. Hopefully no prep was done and the clearcoat/basecoat are still under there in good shape.
 
Depends heavily on what plastic it is. I have had good luck on some plastics but yes it will completely dissolve, soften, or swell others. And yeah, I forgot that he was working with plastic parts, real sorry about that.
 
Closing the loop on this, I used acetone and it worked like a charm removing all of the spray and not damaging the factory paint. I did 'neutralize' the acetone with isopropyl alcohol and water after I had completed stripping a section.
 
x2 acetone. work quickly, don't rub on it to hard or concentrate too long in one area works very well
 
FYI. Break fluid works great at stripping paint. It gets into all the hard to reach areas and washes off with Dawn dish detergent. I keep a small tub in the shop for this and reuse it multiple times.
 
Brake fluid will eat factory paint as well. Kind of like aircraft stripper. Plus it takes a minute to work on the paint. There is a fine line between too long and not long enough. I would only use it on metal that i wanted bare. Nothing that i wanted to save.
 
I'll keep that in mind. I've used it on everything from fiber glass hood vents to painted over chrome bezels. Its always worked great. Who knew?
 
It definitely removes factory paint and undercoating, ask me how I know lol

Acetone removes damn near anything, it'll ruin factory paint but the margin between it removing the rattle can and it damaging the factory cc/bc is wide enough to work wonders with.
 
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