What Paint Syripper Is Safe To Use On Plastic?

[RATTER15]

I have a mate that wants strip paint off of an old scooter, some of the panels are plastic, some are fibreglass, what can be safely used to strip the paint without damaging the plastic?

[humbersloop]

People talk about a variety of mixtures of thinners, nitromors, brake fluid and dettol ratter, but I'm not aware of anything that works on paint without damaging plastic. I'm not sure of the benefits of doing it anyway, if you got a decent surface to work with, leave it alone.

Imo he'd be better off sanding it back to a clean finish, then putting on a couple of coats of primer and starting from there.

[tonyav]

Yes RATTER have to agree with sloopy, flat the paint back and you will get a good finish.
By the way RATTER what scooter is it ?.

[RATTER15]

The problem is: he put the wrong paint on and it reacted to the primer which bubbled and cracked and made a horrible mess, these panels would be very difficult to sand down due to complex shapes. I have heard of brake fluid being used, it may be worth a look into that.

[RATTER15]

Tony, Its a rare Vespa I believe, I'm not a scooter man myself.

[humbersloop]

nooo, ratter, it'll be a worse mess, honest

[tonyav]

RATTER, if I were your mate I would try and speak to someone from a bodyshop if I were him before he starts using any kind of stripper ( could cause serious damage to the panels ) I'm pretty sure that they would be able to advise him.
My bet is that he didn't use the correct primer for painting plastics.

A rare Vespa then, I was a Lambretta man in my youth.

[Charity]

Have you tried asking on the Vespa Club of Great Britain site?

[RATTER15]

Apparently there is no safe product aside from a bit of elbow grease and some good old wet and dry paper.

Thanks guys!

[humbersloop]

yep ratter, meant to say yesterday that the paint "bites" into the plastic and you can't shift it

good luck with the work though x