Fender garnish paint removal?
 

What's up guys. I'm the second owner of my car. It's stil "newish" with 13, 000 miles. Anyways the fender garnish was painted or plastidipped black. I'm sure someone on here has stripped the paint off of one of these before. Any suggestions on how to do it without risking the factory paint underneath.

Finger nail to find out if it is plasti dip. Otherwise pretty difficult to remove paint without damaging the paint under.

Welcome, stidhamrichard ......:clap:

What do you consider the "fender garnish"..??

Yep, like mentioned, if it was plastidipped, it should peel off.

If it was painted, you may try gently applying alcohol to see if you can raise the first layer of paint.

OR ....... just paint over it.

OR (use at your own risk) quickly apply some acetone then be even QUICKER about taking it off.


humfrz

Alcohol to remove cured paint? Only if you drink enough of it to think you can do it with a sander.

If painted it is almost impossible to remove it without some risk to the paint underneath. Anything strong enough to remove paint is going to remove or damage all paint not just the top coat.

Well, says YOU!

If you doubt that you can use alcohol to remove paint (that has been painted over a clear coat) I challenge you to do an experiment.

Take a spray can of any kind of paint, spray one front fender of your car, let dry, then wipe it down with alcohol and see if it takes off the applied paint without harming the clear coat.

If the alcohol doesn't take off the paint or harms, the clear coat ...... sorry about that ...... so I was wrong ....... not all experiments turn out the way you would predict ...... :iono:


humfrz

Alcohol does not strip auto paint. Doesn't even touch auto paint. I use it in my model building to clean between coats of fresh paint. Has never removed a thing. Now if you soak acrylic house paint in it then it may soften it a bit but that is it.
Car detailers (who tend to be anal about such things) use it wo wipe down cars before applying new wax.
http://www.detailedimage.com/Ask-a-P...-ipa-wipedown/

Well now, what you say is true ........ HOWEVER, maybe the paint that the previous owner of the OP's car used to paint over the fender garnish (what the heck ever that is) was NOT automotive paint ...... :iono:

OK, @stidhamrichard ...... you started this ........ now, what do you consider "fender garnish" and was the paint used plasti-dip ....... ??

hmmmm...... I wonder if "paint remover" would take off that aftermarket paint and not harm the clear coat ....... what you say there, @Tcoat ..... :popcorn:

What about goof-off or goo-gone ......??


humfrz

My models aren't automotive paint either. Goo Gone doesn't remove cured paint either (use it on models as well). Anything that will remove cured paint will indeed harm the clear coat.

Now if the OP is just calling the emblem the fender garnish then he could indeed tape off the chrome part and use a jell paint remover. Have to be bloody careful though. If he is referring to the whole panel then stripping paint off would be damn near impossible. A trip to the local auto wreckers may be the answer if painted.

https://ichitaka05.files.wordpress.c...s-2013_054.jpg

LOL the random picture I grabbed from a Google search appears to be from ichi.

Alcohol won't do anything to most paints that will kill you if you drank it.

Acetone may remove the paint but it may also remove the plastic if it is ABS.

Anyways, if it is plastidipped, try picking at a corner to see if it comes off. It is paint, you pretty much have to sand it off and get it repainted. Unless they did a really poor job prepping the surface and use really bad paint, there's really no way to remove a single layer of paint. It's all or none.

The key word is "cured" paint. Alcohol, 91% IPA (not beer) may be??? able to take off fresh paint, but no way cured paint.
@humfrz Try this experiment on "your" car. Report back with the results.

Acetone will take off cured paint but will damage the paint and plastic, especially, as posted, ABS plastic.

If a paint has not been baked on mineral spirits might work and should not damage the clear coat. Emphasis on might.

The regular paint strippers are composed of mostly methylene chloride, methanol, and mineral spirits (aka, Stoddard Solvent). It's the methylene chloride that does most of the paint removal.
These will take off all the paint and damage ALL plastics.

The "safer" stripping gels have a completely different composition. I have used them on wood but found them to be not as effective as regular paint strippers. Have no idea how they would affect plastic.
http://www.citristrip.com/uploads/do...CS61040.26.pdf
@humfrz Another experiment for you to try.

Hey ....I'm a "retired" chemist, I don't do experiments anymore, ..... lemmie alone ..... :D

Reminds me of back-in-the-day, when I was working with a toxicology lab in Scotland, that did mutagenic studies with pesticide and pharmaceutical chemical compounds.

Part of the tour was viewing (in 4 liter glass jars) the "results" of some of the experiments on animals ....... that did not turn out too well .......:eyebulge:

That made me a believer in why they made me "suit up" before entering certain sections of the laboratory.


humfrz

Hey guys, I just pulled the whole garnish off and peeled back a corner and got it all off little by little. Thanks for the advice... I've never felt with that plastidip stuff lol

:slap: .........that's for not trying to do that to start with......;)

OK, @RickyBobby , you can put your chemistry set away and stand down .....:)

@Tcoat ....... just put down your torch ..... and slowly back away from his car....:eyebulge:

So, @stidhamrichard ........ I'll tell this girl to go back home, you no longer need her services to remove the paint ..... :iono:


humfrz

Pretty sure I know her! At least her twin.