Removing Paint

These days many Hot Wheels cars have often highly detailed markings on them.

This Jaguar has racing markings on the sides.

It also has very cool markings on the front.  But I don't want to use this as a race car.

So how do I remove these markings easily?

These markings are called tampos and are printed onto the side of the vehicle.  Just a swipe or two with a dry erase marker and they are gone.

The carrier chemical in the marker dissolves the tampo and the felt part of the marker wipes it away.

It takes longer to explain than it does to perform.  Now the car is clean of markings and can be used as a regular car.  If it plan to strip the paint off and do a re-paint in a new color, I always take the tampo off first because it is just one more layer to remove and taking it off first speeds the paint removal process.
 

Several Things

James Bond fights a dangerous enemy over the bonnet of his high performance sports car.

Using paint remover to strip paint.  I put the paint remover into an old glass jar and then dunk die cast models into it so they can soak the paint off.  It allows me to reuse the paint remover.  Note also the toothbrush, and the plastic tray.

Paint remover in the jar.

Hobby Lobby pickup trucks that have been soaking in the paint remover.  They previously had the Christmas tree removed.

I used these brushes to remove the paint and glitter.

Water in a catsup bottle to rinse off the paint remover.

Painting surface after primer was sprayed on a Batmobile body.
 

Chopper Surgery

This is my go to paint remover.

Does a good job and is not too dangerous as these things go.  Always read and follow the precautions on the label!

Taking the the paint off a surplus Batcopter.

I have six of these so four are being repurposed.

Using pliers I pulled off the rotor pin.

Then drilled out the two rivets on the bottom.  Use a rag to cushion the chopper bubble.

Drilling.  Gotta press pretty hard.

Catch the filings on a bit of paper towel to make it easy to dispose of them.