Stripping advice needed

[eja]

I am trying to strip a Kato CP SD40 using 91% alcohol.  After what is probably a total of an hour's time soaking, I have been able to remove the "Pac-Man" logo and the CP Rail and the the numbers using a soft toothbrush, but have made no dent in the basic red paint.

Any suggestions or advise appreciated ....... ???

[ednadolski]

I believe that the 'Chameleon' stripper is supposed to work with Kato paint, tho I've never used it myself.

[central.vermont]

Chameleon is what I use and have great results in using
it. It will not harm plastics. I've actualy left a shell in the
stuff for over a week because I forgot about it!!!  :

Jon

[bsoplinger]

I stripped a Kato CP AC4400CW with the "purple car degreaser stuff"

Umm, can't think of the name of the product. Its a cleaner, sold as a degreaser, for cars and the like. It comes in a purple bottle. Available at any NAPA parts store. Its pricey for a bottle of cleaner, 10ish dollars. But its not as harsh as Chameleon and about half the price. IMHO it works at least as well if not better on Kato shells. I soaked on old MDC boxcar in it for a week (I'd gotten been busy) and no harm was done to the plastics that I could see.

I should add that its still caustic and you'd want to wear gloves when using this stuff (or Chameleon for that matter).

Dug the bottle out. Its "Super Clean" and comes in a 1Qt purple plastic bottle with spray head. I assume it can be bought at other places, but I know its a product that NAPA parts stores carry, perhaps any NAPA store would have it, don't know.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Tip well, and remember what they say about the champagne room.

[RS-27]

I've been doing little bits here and there on my projects list and decided to try cleaning 5 Kato SD40 shells that I'd tried to strip previously.  The 91% isopropyl did get most of everything off (I must have used 76% previously). 

So I decided to do the walks and handrails.  Threw them in the alky and left them there a week... hey, it's just isopropyl, right?  Pulled them out.  The sill and walk/handrails had been left together.  They now has a nice warp, being bent up in the center about 1/8" or more.

Softly cursing myself, I proceeded to clean the paint off with no problem.  I let them sit (still assembled) for a week.  As the walks slowly gave up whatever alcohol they had absorbed, they did straighten out. 

Object lesson: engineering plastics (read: walk/handrails i.e.: celcon/nylon/delrin...) have their quirks. I lucked out, but I'll not leave stuff sitting for more than a day.

On another note.  I had some Atlas centerflows that I was splicing to make CF5700s.  They were the old stuff from the 70s or so.  There were Shell (green) and some other white scheme that 91% would barely take off the lettering, I've had bad luck with brake fluid, so that is out.  Pinesol and easy-off oven cleaner had no effect.  I found a 2oz bottle of Floquil Easy Lift Off.  A cotton swab and ELO made a mess but a couple of swabs later, they were clean.

I went to buy some at Hobbytown, found Chameleon and choked at the price: $7 for barely enough to kill yourself (8oz), let alone clean all the stuff I need to strip.  Guess I try to find some of Brians NAPA stuff.

Bob in IDaho