so the voltage regulator melted at some point before I bought this car.
it's a 71 cuda and I'm wondering what would cause this?
also, how to clean off this grey goo? I've tried lacquer thinner (nope) carb cleaner (paint began to come off-just like the thinner) had best results with naptha-but this is 2 hours into it, and really sucks. any ideas?

here's the regulator

I had one do that sealed in a plastic bag on a parts shelf...Age????

UHHMM if it's an original car and you're trying to cover the damage, have the paint matched as close as possible and airbrush it in, other wise leave it alone before you create more damage. It happened back in the day,
Would appear from the pic that you may have some melted wiring which is a much bigger issue, What caused it??? A bad ground or grounded field connection.

If heat melted it the first time, try a heat gun and plastic scraper?

So far, the only ones like this I have ever seen are on cars that have sat for a long time...not sure if it is age or the above mentioned alternator-related mayhem. But...if you had one do this on the shelf in a bag-I would have to lean towards suspicion of old age.
anyone else ever seen this?

My original ECU did that sitting in a box with the rest of the wiring. It still worked fine when it was removed from the car. Years later when I was going through the wiring, I saw that it had melted all over everything.