Lionel plastic shells, ABS ?

There are lots of ways to remove paint. 90% alcohol, Weaver scale coat stripper, oven cleaner, bucket of laundry detergent and water, Simple green, and the list goes on. I tried special ABS liquid glue on post war shells and it does nothing. Won't hold at all. I don't know WHAT Lionel really uses.

Rob

The method I used to use for removing paint took a while.  A long time
back, the 90% isopropyl alcohol was mentioned, on this forum.  My local Rite-Aid usually carries 90-93% for a pretty cheap price.  I have a 15" tall round plastic container full
of it.  Anything I want to strip the paint from gets dunked in it.  This method is the easiest I have used and doesn't hard the shell.

I am getting ready to strip the paint on a new Lionel AC-6000 CSX Heritage unit.

Here is the removable roof panel that was stripped in less than an hour.

The alcohol and an old toothbrush work great to remove most the paint.  On this particular item, the blue paint was coming off within 20 minutes.  The white stripe took some coaxing with a toothpick...just to help lift it.  Not sure what this stripe is made of but the alcohol really softened it.  Underneath the stripe was more blue paint that needed to soak longer before I could remove it.

I'll be disassembling the locomotive today, so I can repaint it.

The only items that I haven't been able to strip with the isopropyl alcohol is MTH painted diecast.  I had a diecast auxiliary tender and the frame of a bobber caboose...the alcohol did nothing to them.  I ended up painting over the caboose frame and I used a Dremel to clean up the tender.  Both came out fine.

Impressive results !!!  

So alcohol will not harm plastic even if you let it soak for a couple of hours ?

How long does it take to strip the entire AC-6000 ?

please post pictures of the final result.

Thanks

Correct.

Here is the cab of that locomotive.  I put it in the alcohol @ 9PM last night and was going to scrub it after an hour had past.  Well, I never made it to the basement last night so, I just scrubbed it at 1PM today.  Most of the paint was rippled and peeled away like a sheet.  After some light scrubbing with the toothbrush, I then pulled out the grab irons.  Here is the result...

...you can see that the above photo still shows paint in the holes where the grab irons were.  I will soak it again to get those little details clean.  I don't know what the window visors are painted with unless it is just blue anodized aluminum...they stayed bright blue.

I still have to soak all the added on details, like vents and such, along with the rest of the body shell(seen below).

I have soaked shells for long periods in alcohol and never had any problems. Get the 90% stuff though.

UPDATE: I was soaking a post war 2023 shell today in the alcohol and the shell was badly damaged. The plastic literally melted. BE CAREFUL. I had never seen that before using alcohol.

Rob

Keith and Rob,

thanks for all the infos.

I've done some research on the internet and ABS is used by Lionel for current production models. Isopropyl alcohols is safe on ABS, nylon, polyester and lexan. See this technical link http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/...mats05/mats05139.htm

However, it might not be safe on all plastics.

Pat

I am thinking of repainting some K-line tank cars a satin black and wonder if it is necessary to strip the car and frame.  What are the downsides of not stripping.  These cars will probably be weathered.  Thoughts please.