orange peel

[frank9129]

What is the safest way to strip a resin cast car.
I washed it with warm water and Dawn. Wore rubber gloves to avoid body oil. Clamped it to avoid touching.
The first thin coat of rust-oleum ultra cover shows I did not get all of the release agent off the car. Next cleaning will be with a soft tooth brush.
Now, so as not to damage the car what is the best way to strip it clean to start again.
I have two quarts of 91% alcohol.

[Gameover]

Did tou sand it? I sand mine after i wash them.

[dreinecke]

[RichD]

I had big problems with one resin body, the mold release had actually gotten mixed with the resin to some extent. Even though I had washed the body carefully with dishwashing liquid paint did not want to stick to it. After I stripped off what little paint had adhered to the body I finally got the paint to stick but the paint was easily damaged. That was the only one of dozens of resin bodys that I have painted that had that problem. I suspect that a silicone mold release was used and regular cleaners do not remove that very well.

[4424ever]

This will not help much but I have many paint issues in the past. Too many issues to list but it always seemed to be when I was using spray cans. Since reading Shotguns paint tutorial and trying acrylic paints I've had very few problems and actually I'm starting to enjoy painting.

[Audi1]

Once the paint is stripped off, I clean the resin body with a detergent like Dawn, using luke warm water. Then I go over the body with 0000 steel wool. It smoothes a lot of high spots down and it leaves enough tooth on the resin to take the paint without primer. It's also fine enough so that you won't remove details on the body that you want to keep. You can feel the surface of the body go smooth after using the steel wool. Then I rinse with water, air dry and head for the paint booth.

If I spray a bad coat and create orange peel myself, or paint blobs or some other paint anomaly that I don't want, then I use the 0000 steel wool again to get back to a nice smooth, toothed paint surface. Then I rinse it off, air dry and start painting again. When water appears as a very thin sheet on the paint, or on the resin, you know that you're pretty close to where you want to be before hitting it with paint.

:twocents-mytwocents:

Allan

[ccobra]

When I was working for a wheelchair company out here we had the same issue when with Powder Coating. After a lengthy and timely search into the problem it turned out that our friend was actually our foe. WD-40 and once it was completely removed from the premises, the fish-eye and orange peel issues went away. This WD-40 does like to transfer easily from tool to parts and is very difficult to wash off. This may not be the culprit this time but it may to check out other items like this.

[mattb]

Mold release is usually the biggest problem. I have a big bottle with alcohol, a big bottle with Superclean and one big bottle with Bleachwhite. The Superclean is used for stripping paint from injection molded. The alcohol for cleaning injection molded bodies. I put resin parts in alcohol for only a few minutes, 2-3. Everything then gets a few minutes soaking in Bleachwhite and scrubbed with a toothbrush, then rinsed in clean water and paper toweled dry. Next up the hair dryer to heat the plastic slightly and get rid of any hiding water. Dishwashing detergents are not created equal, many have chemicals in them to soften hands, the last thing you need on your clean body.

Orange peel isn't caused by surface prep as much as a bad can of paint (old or not mixed good), or bad spray techniques. You can always sand orange peel and recoat.

A fish eye is the paint running away from a small spot on the body and then that little spot dries with no paint on it. Re-coating sometimes makes it smaller and smaller, but quick stripping and re-painting is the better answer. Fish eyes come from a small spot of silicone or oil remaining on the body. Painting full size cars, I learned early on that you keep no kind of chemical products anywhere near your prep and work area. You keep no rags there, even after they have been washed. What you keep handy are paper towels you can throw away. Oh yeah you have that big bottle of alcohol you can rinse your hands in before you pick up that clean body to paint it.

[frank9129]

Steve,
No, I did not sand the body first. I washed it in Warm water with Dawn.
I am not very experienced with resin. Hard plastic usually doesn't have any problems.
I will be gentle when I decide how to proceed.
The body cleaned up nicely with no great effort. My kind of job.

[Gameover]

Doc my bodies aren't as nice as yours and require some sanding to smooth out some imperfections. I so I sand mine. I also wash them to. I don't use any of those things you said.... No idea where to buy them lol. I use the dawn though. :)

[frank9129]

Well, It's been an hour. I used a nylon rod, beveled, to lightly scrape the paint.
Now the truck is paint free, lightly sanded 220 grit sanding block. Back into the Dawn bath.
I'll let it air dry over night and give it a light coat of paint. from a rattle can.
Later...

[mattb]

I sand everything to keep paint from chipping off easy.

[dreinecke]

Go back and re-read my comment: "First off - are we talking true orange peel where the paint has laid on like that of fisheyes due to resin release not being cleaned off?" Can't troubleshoot if we don't know the issue.

The paint biting is an issue - particularly on a very slick resin body.

I use the following methods from my link above: "6. Rough up the body to allow the primer something to “bite” into. I like to use 0000 Steel Wool to rub the body and parts down. Sometimes resin is a little too smooth and can cause problem with paint adhesion. This usually won't show up until you are masking a two-toned car, remove the tape, and pull up paint and primer. "

Green Scotchbrite pads work perfectly as well.

[frank9129]

So far, I have cleaned up the body, washed it in Dawn again, let air dry, used steel wool to dress the body. Now I am waiting for the weather to dry up. Humidity is the death of my painting. I'll give the body another bath before I paint it to get the dust off.
Keep the advise coming.
Thanks

[Fathead59]

Ok, quick question, I was able to get a few older cars that I want to repaint and add new decals on. What is the best way to remove the old paint without harming the body. I will be removing all the glass and trim work as carefully as I can to be reused after the new paint has been applied. Any help would be appreciated.