Hey everyone.

I have a small problem. I have a pair of original Dodge Challenger A-Pillar plastic covers that have been painted. They are originally white and some idiot before me painted them black.

Is there a way to strip the paint off these things without damaging the plastic? Are there any techniques that I can employ that can do this?

The Forum's help is always appreciated!

try mineral sperits on a small area...

Those are made from ABS plastic which means that paint stripper will attack it. Try laquer thinner, it's safe for sure, also plain old DOT 3 brake fluid is safe and should also do it but it's pretty messy, typically you'll need to soak them in it for a good long while. Actetone and other solvents may also attack the plastic.

I used DOT 3 on the grille in my sig car. Some idiot had painted it black as well. Was all flaking off and looked like crap. I sprayed brake fluid all over it, let it sit in the hot sun for a few hours and the paint just fell right off of it. I gave the grille a good washing and a fresh coat of paint and it looks like new.

autozone sells a aerosol paint stripper for plastic bumpers. works awesome but can get a little pricey if you need multiple cans

The castrol purple cleaner at full strength works and I have had great result using oven cleaner, dont get the cheapo brand, never any harm to the plastic.

You guys need to understand that all plastics are not created equal, some are resistant to nearly any chemicals while others will melt big time with solvents mentioned here. You need to know which plastic you have before using paint removers...PERIOD.

The part mentioned by the original poster is ABS, what I mentioned will work, anything else...BE CAREFUL! Oven cleaner is bad news to ABS or any other styrene based plastic

Check out SEM paints web site for some good directions on what solvents to use with what types of plastic.

I am in the process of completely re-doing the interior of my coupe...so far they stuff has worked great!

Great! Thank you to everyone for the input!

My interior is black so I figured that I can at least spiff these up and find a good home for them.

Best of all, I learned something new in the process. I should have thought of the DOT 3 brake fluid before.

Hey there is one thing that worked great for model cars that I have used to strip all paint no matter the age of paint 409 house cleaner. stick it in a container and submerge it walk away it will strip it

Preston

Why not 600 grit sand paper?

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Why not 600 grit sand paper?

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Because sand paper does not know the difference between removing paint or plastic. If you don't mind losing some fine details and don't mind missing areas in corners where you simply cant sand, sand away.

You have to watch with that castrol super clean. I tried some on some plastic parts years ago, that stuff turned them to mush. So be careful with what stripping agents you use on what kinds of plastic.

Scott,
What would you recommend for an original shaker bubble and e-body door panels?

Thanks!

Darren

Fiberglass safe paint stripper on the bubbles. On door panes (Polypropylene) is pretty much impossible to melt with chemicals ( in fact most plastic jugs that hold chemicals are made of Polypropylene) so you can use most anything on the door panels. It's always a good idea to start with something mild like laquer thinner and work towards stronger chemicals should it not get the job done, Acetone would be my next try if LT doesn't work.

Here's a bubble I recently stripped for repairs.

Next step, add paint stripper to one half and let it work it's magic

I stripped one half at a time for demonstration purposes plus it's nice to have a dry area for handling it. This is after the first layer of stripper was washed/scraped off.

After anoher coat of stripper followed by some elbow grease and a non scratch version of scotch brite and water rinse.