The cap that came on my ranger has those plastic bubble type windows on it. The previous owner decided to spray paint them black for some reason. This is a real ***** when trying to back out of a parking space and I cant see if anyone is coming towards me. Some of the paint has chipped off and the plastic windows underneath are def suffering. They're pretty yellowed but i still have most of a bottle of PlastiX left from my headlights and I want to give it a shot before I resort to ripping them out and putting new plexiglass in. The dilemma is this: How do I remove what is left of the black spray paint without melting the window itself with solvents? Should I wet sand it? The guy in the paint section at wallyworld said this might work Krud Kutter Graffiti Remover

Any ideas?

 

razor blade and a heat gun but be careful not melt the plastic windows

 

Your going to ruin the plastic windows if you try to use a razor blade. I would just try to wet sand and buff as if they were headlights.

 

Don't use a razor blade, you will scratch the hell out of them. I'd try a high powered pressure washer.

 

ok or a plastic puddy knife lol

 

I don't have access to a pressure washer. The closest thing would be the quarter car wash....

If I wet sand it should I go with 2000?

Any feedback on that graffiti remover? It claims its ok to use on plastic and plexiglass and is water based. I cant decide which has a better chance of damaging them, the spray or the sanding....

Edit: was googling and found something about using a mr. clean magic eraser. Think that would do any damage?

 

I'd try the car wash first it's the simpliest.

 

I'll give it another shot. Just high pressure rinse or should I use any of the detergents/degreasers etc?

 

Just got back from the car wash with no results. I had better luck scraping it with my fingernail.

The plastic it's made out of is really flexible. See how it bubbles out in the pictures? The pressure of the car wash pseudo-powerwasher was enough to make it pop in so the bubble was on the inside of the cap and a concave surface on the outside. I was able to climb in the bed and push it back out easily. Any idea what they make these things out of? With how flexible it is I don't think its lexan or polycarbonate. If I can figure out what its made out of I might be able to find a stripper of some sort that's made for it....

 

I would try a cleaner called dirtex Cleaning Products if that did nit work I would try goof off Remember to try in a small spot first Randy

 

Cool, I'll see if I can find the Dirtex in any of the stores around here tomorrow.

Goof off will probably be a last resort though as the primary ingredient is acetone and I think these bubble windows are the definition of cheap plastic and acetone will most likely eat the **** out of them after it does an awesome job of removing the paint. If the plastic wasn't such cheap **** this would be so easy...

Edit: If I can't find the dirtex or it doesn't do the job I might just go ahead and try wet-sanding them. I guess I cant make it any worse than it already is. Even if it turns out really bad i can always just repaint them black until I can afford to outright replace them.....

 

let me know how it goes we use dirtex in the Aerosol cans to clean before painting I know it will remove latex paints and sometimes will remove oil base paints also If not it will clean your kitchen great I think home depot and lowes carry it if not call around to local paint stores Randy