With careful technique, you can successfully remove spray paint from plastic without causing any harm to the material. This article outlines the steps involved in this process and provides essential tips for repainting the plastic if desired.
How to Remove Spray Paint from Plastic?
Plastic needs to hold paint better than wood, wood, stone, concrete and masonry materials. This is good news. However, it is much more challenging to remove spray paint without damaging the surface of the plastic than other materials. Nevertheless, it is possible to remove spray paint from plastic.
No matter what paint you paint the plastic with, the paint on it will be weak. Only paints specially made for plastic hold plastic very well.
It is, therefore, easy to remove spray paint from a plastic surface.
However, since plastic is a sensitive material, you should be careful when removing spray paint from the plastic surface. Paint remover and some types of thinners used to remove paint from surfaces such as stone, wood, and metal can damage the surface of the plastic. Therefore, you should be more careful when removing spray paint from plastic. Below we explained how to get paint off plastic. You can choose a method that suits you.
What Removes Spray Paint from Plastic?
- Paint remover
- Sanding
- Thinner
Now, let’s explain how to get spray paint off plastic using the above methods and what you need to be careful not to damage the surface.
How to Get Spray Paint off Plastic?
Above, we have listed three methods to remove spray paint from plastic. For these methods to be effective and not deform the plastic surface, we have explained the points you should pay attention to and how to use them below. First, we start with removing spray paint from plastic with paint remover.
1-Removing Spray Paint from Plastic with Paint Remover
Paint removers are effective chemicals for removing all kinds of paint from many surfaces. However, it is only suitable to use paint removers for some surfaces. It would help to use an appropriate paint remover for the suitable surface.
Paint removers that penetrate the surface they are applied to can damage soft materials such as plastic. Therefore, take your time removing spray paint from plastic.
Choose the suitable paint remover. Your choice should be a paint remover that is suitable for plastic surfaces. Ask if it is ideal for plastic when you buy it. Otherwise, it will melt the surface of the plastic.
2-Getting Rid of Spray Paint on Plastic by Sanding
Paint removers are effective chemicals for removing all kinds of paint from many surfaces. However, it is only suitable to use paint removers for some surfaces. It would help to use an appropriate paint remover for the suitable surface.
Paint removers that penetrate the surface they are applied to can damage soft materials such as plastic. Therefore, take your time removing spray paint from plastic.
Choose the suitable paint remover. Your choice should be a paint remover that is suitable for plastic surfaces. Ask if it is ideal for plastic when you buy it. Otherwise, it will melt the surface of the plastic.
3-Removing Spray Paint from a Plastic Surface Using Thinner
The most common thinners are cellulosic and synthetic thinners. Cellulosic thinner is very effective on all surfaces. It is used for thinning cellulosic paints. It is also used to remove paint from some surfaces.
Yes, you can use cellulosic thinner to remove many types of paint from many surfaces, including plastic. But as mentioned above, cellulosic thinner is chemically very effective. Therefore, you should be careful when using it.
As a result of our tests, we observed that cellulosic thinner shrinks some plastics and turns the color of others gray. Therefore, you should be very careful if you want to remove spray paint from a plastic surface. “Related articles “how to remove spray paint from metal and how to remove spray paint from skin?”
Warnings and Recommendations
Above, we have described methods for removing spray paint from plastic. If you want to repaint the plastic, you may not need to completely remove the paint from the surface. Lightly sand the paint off the surface. Apply a coat of primer and repaint. This will be much easier and less risky.
