Stripping paint from weaver cars

Jim,

Since your experience with different Weaver cars was different, my experience might be worth something.  I have always used hydraulic brake fluid and an old tooth brush to get the lettering and paint off plastic cars.  Sometimes, the lettering would leave a shadow but a coat of primer will take care of that.

Hope this helps.

Ed

How about wet sanding the lettering off and then prime the car.  If the original paint on the car has no issues like peeling or cracking a coat of primer may be your best bet.  Nick

Good point Ed, as I know for sure how paint will be removed from Automobile finishes, and won't hurt the under surface, be it metal or plastic, as I hate sanding....Brandy

Maybe soak them longer?

Last pair of cars I had in isopropanol I let soak for about 2 weeks to get everything off, and I still had to use a soft brass wire brush to remove some bits that were tight.

I always hate to sand because I have a hard keeping from damaging the rivet and other surface detail.   The wet sanding does do a good job of removing the lettering and smoothing the surface however.   At 600 or smaller grit.

One other thing that worked on plastic was Pine Sol (the real stuff not the generic knock-offs). Didn't damage the plastic and cleans off with soap and water. Brake fluid can attack some plastics.

Matt, I like your Pinesol idea (cheap, and I already have a couple of gallons).

I thought it odd that the lettering of one New Haven car floated off after 15 minutes in the alcohol but the other car was untouched after 24 hours even with scrubbing. 

The paint came off the Pennsy baggage car in about 3 hours with mild toothbrush scrubbing.

I had 2 NYC E8s and 2 SP Black Widow E8s.  The NYC paint floated free of the body shells in 12 hours.  The SP black required a lot of scrubbing after 24 hours but otherwise came off cleanly.

Obviously the cars were all painted with different types of paint.

I've never had any trouble stripping Weaver cars, in fact Scalecoat paint is usually the easiest to strip.

it does sound as if different paints were used. Weaver almost always paints their own cars with Scalecoat, but perhaps some runs were painted in China. In that case it may be more like an ink than paint.

I've had very good luck with Castrol SuperClean, ever the later VOC compliant version. maybe a call to Weaver will reveal different paint products.

We were using oven cleaner. It striped the cars well.then washed with Soap and water.

Just wondering what would be the advantage of stripping paint from an OEM item.

If you’re just looking to remove painted / raised lettering, it can be done in minutes using a Mr. Clean Magic eraser.

Then mist the shell with grey auto primer prior to decorating.

I used to spend days using all the products mentioned above until I discovered the eraser.

It might save you a lot of time in the future.

Another option is using a mini air blaster with a cardboard box and baking soda.

Just a few more tools for the work shop...

Not sure when the cars that are not responding to your removal methods were painted, but Weaver did change paint at some point. I was talking to Joe and Todd about this on one of my visits.

Don

Any suggestions on how to remove at least the lettering

on the remaining RPO.

three words.. EL OFF

I'm impressed with how squeaky clean those four E8 carbodies look; I did a pair with brake fluid and still had to pick/scrub off the "cranies" and wet sand the former lettering to get rid of the "ghost"edging.

I will try the alcohol or pine sol approach on my next pair

I do prefer taking it down to the plastic, for me it makes it easier and cleaner to work  removing cast on details like portholes, the DB fan, and replacing other details with P&D parts, also working body filler with matching primers. Really just a preference.  

how about scalecoats rinseaway stripper