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Stripping Automotive Paint from ABS

December 12, 2010

I want to ask, which are the best chemicals to remove automotive paint from pieces of ABS.
The paint is the commercial used by DUPONT, a Universal Primer, Automotive Paint and Polyurethane clear coat...

I have found a chemical reactivity table for several plastics, however, apparently, all chloride, benzil, ketones, alcohol's, attack plastic. Talking about MEK, Benzyl alcohol, Xylene, toluene, methanol, DBE's, etc...

I have tried with polyglicols mix in a very alkaline environment, with good results, but with so many time used in the process... around 5 hours in a bath to 80° C, I can't go upper due to fusion temp. of ABS, which is around 120 ° C, but at 100 ° C is start to melt or be soft...

The issue in here is to remove the polyurethane clear coat, it's the heaviest thing chemically I have seen to remove, also, with my experience, I can tell that once time clear coat is off, paint and primer are very easy to remove... the pieces don't have clear coat in 100% of surface, since they are mirror car guards, inside it several times in process don't apply clear coat at all... which make it hard to think how to attack complete piece...

I tried mechanically to "remove" clear coat using teflon abrasive discs, and there is an improvement, but not like to be happy with this...

Somebody else have tried different methods or techniques for this purpose?

Any help or ideas are appreciated.

Thanks

Rodrigo Hinojosa
car restorer - Monterrey, Mexico