Stripping Paint Off Plastic Fairrings

[RiderInBlack]

Just wondering if there is any safe paint stripper for plastic fairrings, or am I better of sanding the whole lot down?
I got a spare full fairring for "Roxanne" that I'm going over, plastic welding any small cracks and repearing any damage as I go. When I've got them all stable, I eventually wish to repaint them so she will end up looking something like this:

[marty]

the paint will be more (chemically) durable than your plastic, so you're pretty much committed to sanding them. even if they're fibreglass, sanding will give a better finish in the long run, as the paint fills any imperfections in the plastic/glass top coat. in any case, you really need to prime with a fill coat before the top coat, so why go the effort of taking it right back? it's not like it's going to be rusty. how many car painters take the car back to bare metal?

i've got a mate in dorkland who does plastic welding if you need someone.

[RiderInBlack]

the paint will be more (chemically) durable than your plastic, so you're pretty much committed to sanding them. even if they're fibreglass, sanding will give a better finish in the long run, as the paint fills any imperfections in the plastic/glass top coat. in any case, you really need to prime with a fill coat before the top coat, so why go the effort of taking it right back? it's not like it's going to be rusty. how many car painters take the car back to bare metal?

i've got a mate in dorkland who does plastic welding if you need someone.

I'm pretty good at the plastic welding myself.
I more interested in getting a good lasting paint finish. Parts of the fairrings have been repainted, but not very well done as there is some peeling. I will need to get rid of that, if I wish the new paint to stick without peeling off as well.
Will be looking for a good pro painter after I've got them ready.

[Eurodave]

Try getting them glass bead blasted, worked for me a wee while ago, failing that,as a previous post said, just use 280/400 grit wet & dry & knock the gloss off & feather any exposed paint edges

[RiderInBlack]

Try getting them glass bead blasted

Is that not too hard on the Plastic???

[kerryg]

Is that not too hard on the Plastic???

If your fairings are the original factory fairings they're almost certainly ABS, which is the same stuff they line the interior of fridges with. I doubt that a commercially-available chemical paint stripper would harm it but you should try a small test patch somewhere inconspicuous first for safety's sake.
If the existing paint is real paint (not spray can stuff but proper 2 pack stuff) AND in sound condition I wouldn't strip it back to the bare plastic myself but would just give it a light sanding, however it sounds like at least some of your paint is pretty bad so you may have no choice. You say you're going to get a proper paint job afterwards, which implies a professional job, so be aware that proper 2-pack spray paint uses strong solvents that may cause any remaining paint that you don't remove which is not of the same chemistry (eg spraycan stuff from Supercheap Auto etc) to bubble. If in doubt going back to bare plastic is safest.

EDIT: I'd add that if you have vinyl decals, whether clearcoated or not, you need to remove them. If they are in good condition and you are really keen on avoiding that cost (which can be considerable) it might be possible to get your painter to mask them out but it will definitely compromise the quality of the final job to some extent. Depends how fussy you are. Aftermarket decals at a fraction of factory prices are reasonably easy to come by.

[RiderInBlack]

If your fairings are the original factory fairings they're almost certainly ABS, which is the same stuff they line the interior of fridges with. I doubt that a commercially-available chemical paint stripper would harm it but you should try a small test patch somewhere inconspicuous first for safety's sake.
If the existing paint is real paint (not spray can stuff but proper 2 pack stuff) AND in sound condition I wouldn't strip it back to the bare plastic myself but would just give it a light sanding, however it sounds like at least some of your paint is pretty bad so you may have no choice. You say you're going to get a proper paint job afterwards, which implies a professional job, so be aware that proper 2-pack spray paint uses strong solvents that may cause any remaining paint that you don't remove which is not of the same chemistry (eg spraycan stuff from Supercheap Auto etc) to bubble. If in doubt going back to bare plastic is safest.

Thanks for that. Have had crazy cracking before due to not doing it right.

[GB500nz]

100-grit wet-n-dry, used wet, works very fast and is actually easier to use on something that size than paint stripper. Once you're getting close to good, change to 400-grit and sand it smooth. Fill imperfections with bog, sand again, spray with primer (2 coats) and wetsand with 600. Most of the work is in preparation, and if your professional does it the cost will be well over the price of a new fairing from Japan.

[walk'n]

This is what my partner (a painter) has to say. He can never get near the computer

Sounds like everyone else has given pretty good advise so far. I don't think anyone has mentioned yet that if you have had crazy cracks or any other preperation related imperfections (like humidity blisters) you do need to take it right back to bare plastic. Otherwise it just comes straight back.

320 to 400 wet should make a good job of it though with a 600 after it's been primed. You could also think about using plastic primer and adding flexi-add to all the paint coats if you want it to flex with your plastic
But I dont think you need to unless you plan on dropping it

[DEATH_INC.]

I think flexi-add is a good idea,all the repaints I've seen suffer from stonechips real bad compared to stock paint,the flexi will help stop this a bit...
Don't use paint stripper (I've tried it)it'll eat the plastic more than the paint....

[RiderInBlack]

I was planning to get a pro to do the painting. Just looking at the best way to prepare the fairrings and tank for them. There is no crazy cracking on these fairrings. There is some repainting that has been done on them, but they obviously didn't sand the old coat properly before repainting as there is some peeling. Below are some of the fairrings (want to get rid of all that red) and a pic of how I wish to repaint her.