Stripping paint from interior painted plastic - Castrol Super Clean

In a previous thread here where an owner repainted the dashboard instrument panel and door panel "swoosh" panels, there had been some questions about how to remove the elastomeric paint.  His reply had been to sand off the finish, but it was mentioned how troublesome this is as the paint is rubbery.  

Well, I was searching around for techniques to strip plastic trim, and it turns out that it really can be something of a trick as many plastics of course are damaged by traditional stripping methods. Most chemical methods that work well on other materials will soften or completely dissolve many plastics.  And mechanical means such as sanding can be difficult to do well without damaging the part also.

But I found where some had success using lye based degreasers and similar such as Simple Green, Super Clean, etc. Some of these were said to take hours to day of soaking, but would soften the paint.  Super Clean however was recommended most often it seemed, both in speed and efficacy.

So I gave it a try on a door panel piece I had from the wrecking yard.  I bought a 1G jug for about $7 and put it in an old plastic bucket and submerged the panel in the Super Clean.

I don't know exactly how long it took to slough off the paint, but when I returned in an hour the paint was orange peeled and slid right off in sheets with zero effort.  Based on some of the Super Clean that ran down the part when I picked it up and how the paint reacted, I'd say 15-30 minutes is probably long enough for this to work.

I can't yet say if this would have any detrimental effects on paint adhesion following stripping, but given what Super Clean is designed to do..... clean off oil/grease, I would think it would rinse very clean.  The plastic itself did not seem softened, but I'll know more today after it has dried and I prep it for a test paint.

Al

An aside, this used to be called Castrol Super Clean, but now seems to be a standalone product and is now just called Super Clean in a purple jug.  It is found at most auto stores.

you don't need any weird products or methods to strip. all you need is a light scuff to give the part some tooth after a super cleaning.the cleaning will remove all traces of grease that would interfere with the new paint.It's best to buy a gallon of automotive degreaser cause its allot cheaper in the long run and can be used for tons of projects. then apply a couple coats of adhesion promoter,primer then the color.  the flex paint products react to one another and effectively MELT together. least that's what I've been taught. I'm leery to use anything other than auto stuff cause the auto paint chemicals are tough but fragile when not used in tandem with other prep chemicals. I'm only speaking from experience and cant say that my experiences are absolute but that's what the label tell ya!

Yes, unless like mine the flexible paint coating is very deteriorated, sticky and comes off with the slightest ding of anything as hard as a fingernail... but at the same time is a huge PITA to try to sand off as it gums up the sandpaper.  It turns into a gummy "glue" like mess and comes off very unevenly.  

I just finished stripping a whole piece in 15 minutes with the Super Clean though.  The old flexible paint just wiped right off with a paper towel   and the original piece is left smooth as a baby's butt.

I've got my kit of SEM products ready to now do some test colors.

I like the black dash paint some have done, although I think it leaves the nice contrast of the gauges and vents at a slight loss.  So I may try to find something that contrasts with the black gauges and vents, etc but goes well with the "Jadestone" (teal) interior.  I'm finding this is a weird color to try to coordinate.

..hmm,that's bizarre? I've only seen this when the flex paint was originally improperly applied.kinda like dried contact cement right? Sounds like ya got everything.show finished pics!

Yeah, the PO of my car either did something directly or sitting in a field for years did, but all of the "rubber" elastomeric coating in mine are very soft which includes the dash guage panel, door "swooshes" and console area/doors/shift-plate.  Laying my sunglasses on the shift-plate/console will scratch it.  Bumping my fingernails against the drivers side "swoosh" wll scratch it.  The dash is the same.  The worst is the ashtray door, which is actually gummy.  You can put your fingerprint in it.

Hey, maybe the previous owner wiped down the interior with Super Clean?     In all seriousness, it may be that they did wipe down the inside with some sort of cleaner/treatment which over time softened the paint.  In fact, that is likely

Anyway, this teal interior is really tough to find a match or coordinated color that looks good.   SEM has quite an array of colors and I bought three that I thought might work out:  dark brown, graphite and black.  I've got the passenger swoosh painted brown, and I'll mount it tonight.  But just holding it up to the door, I don't know.... it may look a bit odd.  The gray may not be quite right either because of the green tint of the teal.  I may be stuck with black, which was my original default.  Hopefully the SEM black will contrast enough that the gauges and vent/switch rings won't blend in too much.  ...will have to test.

And no, they don't have a "teal", or even something in the family  ... but I'd like a contrast anyway.

You can see the SEM Color Coat chip sample here.  But of course in person the actual colors are a bit different.  Ironically I found the online samples (like gray, and some of the blues) to look a bit "green" on my monitor which would have worked out, but much less so in person. 

http://www.semproducts.com/product-catalog/flexible-coatings/color-coat/

http://www.semproducts.com/index.php/download_file/view/619/


Al

I do know that if you wipe certain chemical coatings with petrol based products ,over time the coating will become damaged. I've made the mistake and used Mineral spirits to clean just about everything,messed things up good & proper.