Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

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Eagle50
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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by Eagle50 »

Careless wrote:Cola also works if rather slowly. ... The one thing that bothers me is if Cola can strip chrome plate off plastic what does it do to ones stomach?
Exactly what I always think.

I remember soaking old coins in Cola overnight as a science experiment, to find them bright and shiny in the morning, like they were just minted. The carbonic acid (that makes the fizz) in Cola is fairly strong. Maybe it doesn't kill us because our stomachs are built to take our natural, digestive, gastric acids..?

Thanks for clarifying that Cola works on plastic paints, even if after a while. Knowing how it can clean coins, I've wondered about that. Now I know that if I'm ever stuck in a jungle, with only Cola on hand, I can still model! :)

Cheers, Chris

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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by jaydar »

Corpsegrinder wrote:I got rid of chrome on plastic off my stack all at once, 4 or 5 models. I soaked them in bleach and I was astounded to find out how effective it was, I did not have to scrub anything, the plating was gone in less than 20 minutes!!!
Before that I tried with some other products but did not work.
I too use bleach. if you take the parts out after about 5 minutes, the chrome is gone but the clear shiny finish is still on. This is a great primer assuming that the part is otherwise perfect. Otherwise leave it in for 15 minutes and everything is gone.

Joe.
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tubegenius
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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by tubegenius »

Just did the bleach bath to the chrome sprues of my 1/12 Protar Ferrari 126c2. For some reason the shiny chrome came off okay, but the satin chrome sprue was unaffected. Any ideas as to why? I guess I'll just hit the satin parts with some fine steel wool then prime and paint them.
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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by daehtihs60 »

I have had very good results with bleach. Works pretty fast.

jaydar
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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by jaydar »

tubegenius wrote:Just did the bleach bath to the chrome sprues of my 1/12 Protar Ferrari 126c2. For some reason the shiny chrome came off okay, but the satin chrome sprue was unaffected. Any ideas as to why? I guess I'll just hit the satin parts with some fine steel wool then prime and paint them.
Not sure but maybe is actually the plastic color an not a finish.

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CK
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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by CK »

Yes, Protar use light grey/silvery plastic for parts that are supposed to be metal or chrome plated. I have a number of their kits and they are all like that.
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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by ringleheim »

I had not heard of the Tamiya paint stripper but that looks worth experimenting with.

I see 250 ml costs about $13 to $15 US plus shipping from places like Hong Kong. Don't think you can get that stuff in the USA.

That's a lot of money for not a lot of material. Depends on what you need to strip of course...

I use oven cleaner and it works pretty well for stripping paint.

Stripping plated chrome is a breeze; that will come off quickly and easily using many products. Stripping older, lacquer paint jobs is a different story.

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Re: Removing chrome from plastic with oven cleaner

Post by heyes57 »

I've always used caustic soda for this purpose. It's fast and doesn't etch the plastic. Just rinse off when it has finished the job and voila!!! Some people may not have heard of this, it's a well-known drain clearer here
in Australia.

Cheers & Beers
Richard H
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