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Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: steven yampolsky on April 29, 2010, 11:12:31 AM

Title: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: steven yampolsky on April 29, 2010, 11:12:31 AM
Years ago, a friend of mine gave me half a gallon of degreaser liquid that worked wonderfully. Well, it finally ran out so I went and picked up some de-greaser at auto-parts store. This one works softens up paint and if you leave a drop on the surface will completely remove the paint! Can someone please point me to a good de-greaser I could use to wipe surfaces between coats?

P.S. I need a degreaser that will work with buterate and nitrate dopes.
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: Randy Powell on April 29, 2010, 12:00:11 PM
I use VM&P Naphtha from Home Depot usually. Sometime Denatured Alcohol, though you have to be careful with that one as it can take off paint if it doesn't have enough stabilizer (binder) in it. You can also go to the auto paint shop and get Dupont PrepSol or pPg surface prep stuff, but it's largely just Naphtha.
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: Shultzie on April 29, 2010, 12:45:23 PM
I use VM&P Naphtha from Home Depot usually. Sometime Denatured Alcohol, though you have to be careful with that one as it can take off paint if it doesn't have enough stabilizer (binder) in it. You can also go to the auto paint shop and get Dupont PrepSol or pPg surface prep stuff, but it's largely just Naphtha.
RANDY,RIGHT ON!...
Years of working at the Wind tunnel model shop...NAPHTHA ALWAYS SAVED THE DAY!
At least in those daze-days...our non-labeled Naphtha seem to work every bit as good as the more expensive Dupont PrepSol premium brands. (Remembering back one of our modelmakers won some "Suggestion$$$" over that same issue?)
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: FLOYD CARTER on April 29, 2010, 04:29:16 PM
But wait!  Isn't Coleman Lantern fuel simply Naptha?

At least, that is the opinion of those who know. 
I bought a gallon of "Prep Sol", or something that
does the same thing.  It works perfectly as a cleaner
just before spraying.

For plane cleanup after flying, I use Sprayway Glass
Cleaner.

Floyd in OR
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: billbyles on May 02, 2010, 06:39:55 PM
Years ago, a friend of mine gave me half a gallon of degreaser liquid that worked wonderfully. Well, it finally ran out so I went and picked up some de-greaser at auto-parts store. This one works softens up paint and if you leave a drop on the surface will completely remove the paint! Can someone please point me to a good de-greaser I could use to wipe surfaces between coats?

P.S. I need a degreaser that will work with buterate and nitrate dopes.

Hi Steven,

The best degreaser/paint cleaning solvent that I have ever used for both full-scale & models on all kinds of paint (including lacquers, butyrate/nitrate dopes, enamels, and all others that I have encountered) is Sikkens M600 paint cleaning solvent, available from automotive paint suppliers.  We haven't been able to buy it here in Southern California for the past few years but it is still available in many other places.

M600 gets the surface truly clean, leaving the surface so it will accept further coats of finishing material.  The technique is to use two clean, new white tee-shirt material cotton rags, one very wet with the M600 and the other dry.  Work a small area (such as the top of one wing panel) wiping the surface with the wet rag in one hand and drying immediately with the dry rag in the other hand.  If you just wipe the surface with the wet rag (regardless of the kind of paint cleaning solvent you are using) it will just spread the contaminants and leave the surface no cleaner than before.  You can get a box of the rags at Lowes, and are well worth the money.  In my shop I buy 50 lbs. of these rags at a time from a commercial supplier, but for models you hardly need this much.
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: RandySmith on May 03, 2010, 12:13:19 PM
You need to carefully test the cleaner,  I had  Prepsol, remove the dope finish when I used it to clean before the clear.
Denatured Alcohol also removes dope if it is freash, some of the pro paint store cleaners also will smear or remove fresh dope

I use lighter fluid (naptha)a lot to remove things like tape marks.
I have also used 50% rubbing alcohol then naptha quickly before painting that worked well.

One thing that is a pain is every time I go buy the same product at the pro paint store ,it seems like the formula has changed.

Randy
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: Matt Colan on May 03, 2010, 05:03:16 PM
We use "Professional Paint Prep" from the Auto Body Master...

Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: billbyles on May 05, 2010, 04:34:06 AM
You need to carefully test the cleaner,  I had  Prepsol, remove the dope finish when I used it to clean before the clear.
Denatured Alcohol also removes dope if it is freash, some of the pro paint store cleaners also will smear or remove fresh dope

I use lighter fluid (naptha)a lot to remove things like tape marks.
I have also used 50% rubbing alcohol then naptha quickly before painting that worked well.

One thing that is a pain is every time I go buy the same product at the pro paint store ,it seems like the formula has changed.

Randy

Hi Randy,

I have found that DuPont's "Prep-Sol" is a quite different product from Sikkens M-600 in a few ways.  Prep-Sol tends to leave a film that needs to be removed with a wipe of DuPont's enamel thinner (the enamel thinner is a very "low-aggressive" solvent.)  Prep-Sol itself is more aggressive than Sikkens M600 with respect to attacking finishes.

That being said, I fully agree with you that "You need to carefully test the cleaner."  I would also not ever use any cleaner to wipe a freshly applied finish of any sort, including two-part polyurethane before it has cured (the cure time varies, depending upon ambient temperature, how "hot" the activator, etc.)  I have found that I can successfully use the M600 on dope after a day of drying here in So. Cal. with no problem.  The basecoat of a basecoat/clearcoat system should never be wiped with any solvent; the basecoat is very fragile until clearcoated.

"One thing that is a pain is every time I go buy the same product at the pro paint store ,it seems like the formula has changed."  Yeah, thanks to our beloved EPA.
 
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: john e. holliday on May 05, 2010, 08:11:38 AM
The thing I have learned is to wash the hands often when I get past the sanding of coats of paint/dope.  I myself am a cheapy and use Windex with lots of paper towels. H^^
Title: Re: Looking for degreaser recommendations
Post by: Randy Powell on May 05, 2010, 09:46:59 AM
I stick with Naphtha. Leaves no film and works. As Randy notes, you do have to test. Mostly to be sure that the paint is completely dry. As noted, denatured alcohol will take off paint if it's not completely dry.

Also, there's a compatibility issue. As Mark Scarborough what happens when you use alcohol wipes just prior to paint when you've used an adhesion enhancer. He found out that there was a, uh, serious compatibility issue.