DOT 3 Brake Fluid on Old Body?

[GeekSpeed]

I saw this mentioned on another website. Apparently you can use DOT 3 brake fluid on an old body to remove the paint. It is not supposed to damage the lexan. Does anyone have any experience doing this to an old Protech shell? I have one that looks awful. The paint is peeling and it was a bad paint job to begin with. I am thinking that this may be worth a shot. What do you think?

[Halgar]

Some say that brake fluid fogs lexan. It works well on hard bodies, though.

[terry.sc]

brake fluid does a wonderful job of attacking the plasticisers in lexan. Very temperature related, at low temperatures it doesn't attack the lexan, but then it doesn't attack the paint either. People have had good results by rubbing the paint with brake fluid then removing it immediately, but that isn't my experience.

If left long enough it will fog the lexan, this is the fluid attacking the plastic itself. Even if the body is clear afterwards there is a good chance it has stripped the plasticisers from the lexan, which means the shell cracks and shatters if you crash it.

Here's a perfect example. I paint the bodies for the UKs top nitro bikes (which managed to finish 4th in the worlds last weekend in Italy , just behind the might of the cheating Italian factory team ). One was painted a while ago and we got a full season out of it and it is still used in practice as it is perfectly fine, just a little tatty round the edges. A second fairing was painted in a hurry for a national meet for a second bike, had an accident and needed to remove the paint quickly so wiped on brake fluid then wiped it all off and washed it down before repainting. That fairing split at the second meeting where I had used the brake fluid and the side that had been stripped with brake fluid has been held together by fender mender and glass tape after splitting in several places. The other side is as good as new.

I wouldn't recommend it. Nitro fuel is the safest stuff you can use on lexan, but a lot of paint around is fuelproof so takes ages if not impossible to remove with it.

[knucklebuster]

I posted a while back about a product from Testors that removes lexan paint like mad but can't recall the exact name. Something like "thinner for metalizer." It's not cost effective for a whole body, especially if there are multiple paint layers.

I had an old rc guy tell me gasoline removes lexan paint when soaked. The same guy owns a custom autobody shop. The shop has a hobby shop to support the folks who race at his clay oval tracks. All that to say maybe he knows better than I.

[Dr. Robotnik]

Testors "thinner for metalizer."

...and a product you guys have in the US called Citri-strip are meant to be fine for lexan...now if I could just find them in the UK

[Toaster]

Funny enough I have had some success with nail polish remover from time to time. Use a cotton pad soaked with the remover and apply gingerly to the painted area.

It takes quite a bit or work (and alot of scrubbing ) and if left exposed to the remover for too long the body will start to fog, but if it is light spray paint it works quite well.

If you head over to the non-rc10 area and look at the before and after pictures on the '91 Yokomo' posting you will see one that I did recently. It isn't foolproof and I wouldn't suggest re-spraying in light colours after your done but might at least give a new lease of life to an older rarer body. Hope this helps!!!