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I'm repainting a Carrera car that has the head and taillights glued in place. (1/24 scale Ferrari 250 SWB) I was able to muscle the taillights out, but the headlights are really in there. I don't know for sure that they are superglued in place, but they are deffinately held in there by adhesive instead of the usual post-melting.

I'm in a bind as the headlights are pushed in to a hole in the front of the car and then seem to be glued in place. There's not a lot of room to work them, and certainly not enough to scrape away at the bonds with an exacto-blade. So I've gotten desperate and am trying to soak the body in alcohol overnight in the hopes that whatever glue is at work here will loosen up just enough that I might push those lights out of the car.

:?: Is there anything that is proven to dissolve or loosen superglue-like adhesive?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

goose try the freezer

get the model wet and put in the freezer for a few

try fingernail polish remover, the kind with acetone

Ditto on the acetone, but carefully as it has been known to "craze" some clear plastic. Perhaps soak a paper towel with the acetone and shove it up next to the glued area instead of dunking it or similar.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I ended up leaving the car in the alcohol anyway, since I wanted to strip it. After only five hours, the paint came right off with only minimal scrubbing- easily the smoothest paint stripping that I've yet experienced. The downside is that the chrome paint around the headlights that I couldn't get out also came off, but that just gives me something else to practice baremetal foil on.

I then decided to try to scrap around the headlight surrounds with an exacto-blade. Once I made a little grove, I stuck a flat-head screwdriver in there and wiggled. I don't know if the alcohol had anything to do with it, but after just a few motions the headlights popped right out.

What prompted this question in the first place is that I had read on some jewelry making forum (found via a google search, I'm not a secret jewelry maker) that 91% alcohol can be used to make the glue just gummy enough to scrape off of metals. Maybe that's what happened here? I don't know. All I know for sure is that the headlights are out and now I can get down to painting.

Thanks again.