Need to remove paint safely from plastics? Here's how...

[Bay Area Dave]

Years ago I used to dabble in model railroading. One of the products I have a few oz. left over is useful for removing paint from plastics without damage.

Today I did some spray painting while wearing poly carbonate glasses. I couldn't remove the paint spatters (dried latex) with water and I sure wasn't going to douse the glasses with lac thinner so I tried my old standby.

Because the plastic bottle broke years ago, I had transferred the contents to another bottle so I can't recall the EXACT part number. It looks like Floquil "Easy Lift Off" is the current description of the same stuff I purchased back in the mid 80's.

Here is the link:

stuff! My glasses are as clear as the day I bought them!

dave

[Bill Schnakenberg]

I haven't tried it on plastic lenses, but one of the best plastic cleaning products is Zep's Patio Furniture Cleaner. It's made to clean those white plastic stackable patio chairs. I recently used it to remove a white overspray on the hood of my truck. I don't know what the overspray was, but I suspect it was some road marking paint. I first tried automotive scratch remover, then polishing compound, then pure gasoline, with negative results. A couple of hard wipes with a cloth soaked with the Zep removed the overspray. Caution: Do not use on baked on enamel aluminum house gutters, it will remove the enamel and you will have nice shiny aluminum gutters. Zep is available at Home Depot, but not at Lowes.

[Bay Area Dave]

Bill, the stuff I mentioned melts the paint just like paint stripper, except it won't eat up plastics. I was able to remove the paint without rubbing.

dave

Bill Schnakenberg wrote:

[J. Clarke]

Be careful with that kind of stuff--it's selective but it's not selective for "plastic" and "paint", it's selective for particular kinds of plastic and particular kinds of paint. Read any documentation you have very carefully.