Removing paint from bit's that shouldn't be painted

[hughes73]

Hi all

Back in the 80s my car's former owner thought it would be cool to get a respray. Not only did he respray the body panels, but anything else that got in the way got painted too. e.g. the horn grilles, and all around the interior where the door shuts (colour number plaque, the latches for the door locks and even the surrounds on the chrome on the indicator lenses.

That's lots of different types of metals, and I'm wondering if anyone can advise me on how to delicately remove this paint. I imagine different materials may react differently to different solvents but if anyone can help that would great.

thanks

Andrew

[Darren65]

Paint thinners may be your best bet Andrew.....use it with a cloth trying a small area at a time. Should be fine.

Cheers,

[Bez1]

Hi Andrew,

Have had a smilar problem on parts of my 912 with gold overspray....

Would agree with Darren's thinners idea but I have been using Acetone on parts that that I know can handle its agresiveness. Chrome for example will clean up well with Acetone. Plastics need testing before hand, but mine seamed to be ok. As an exampe I used Acetone on the blower box that was full of overspray without issue. Using Acetone on the wiring loom will however remove the colour coding so go easy with it.

All the best

Matt

[hughes73]

Thanks. Will try thinners

[Rostrenner]

For removing overspray I can commend an aircraft product named Colour-Ex (former distributor was Wolf-Tech, smitec today). Since it is based on alcohol, it is less aggressive and easier to handle than classic thinners. It works perfect to remove viper green overspray on my current restoration. Thicker layers take more time and effort (I removed the complete lacquer and bondo from my front hood, took very long time), still your thermal and sanding impact is zero.

Try ebay Germany or http://www.smitec.de/e1-entlacker.html
(no affiliation)

Regards
Jan