I have a 1992 Camaro RS. I'm in the middle of restoring it, and need to get the paint off the T-tops. I believe they are the Lexan T-tops, they are very light compared to the glass T-tops I bought off an Iroc. They were painted black by the last owner, and I want to get the black paint off them so I can save money over buying new T-tops, and these tops are original and lock with my key. I bought graffiti remover and tried it on them, I'm being cautious because I don't want to pit or ruin the T-top. That did nothing. I had a buddy at work to to buff it down, that did nothing. We aren't even scratching the paint. We think its a Urathaine based paint, with a clearcoat on it. We are thinking about using paint stripper, but we are worried about pitting the plastic. Need help/suggestions!

 

stock T tops on a 92 would be lexan . i would not use stripper , i have used lexan before on acft. windows . good stuff but no stripper . maybe wet sand ? i don't know but i would try that before stripper . whatever you do good luck .

 

Wouldn't sanding leave scratches though? I would use Acetone personally since it's great for removing paint and such but not as destructive as aircraft stripper. Pour some on a cloth and rub the paint out.

 

it sounds crazy and i dont know what it would do to the lexan, but you could try brake fluid

 

Wet sand in stages. Use a low grit to start, something like a 200 grit with lots of water to get the paint off, and slowly work your way up to 1000 or even 2000(this is what i would suggest) grit sandpaper. Once youre happy with the way the t-tops look and feel with the highest grit sandpaper, use a thin coast of rubbing compund to fill in any tiny cracks and to get rid of the cloudiness that will result from sanding. Once youve done that, put a coat of plastic polish (i used Meguiars Plastx) on them to get that gloss look and protect all the work youve just put into them.

 

Excellent step by step. After that, the t-tops will look better than new on the outside, be transparent again, but you still still see minute cracks from the inside. This is standard upon every set of lexan tops out there. It's from sun damage and age. I would wetsand the **** out of it, because i have a feeling brake fluid or acetone i would have to assume would damage the plastic. If acetone is on plastic parts too long, they will start to become soft and not hard ever again (ask me how i know, lol). It may be a quick and easy fix, but the wet sanding steps above will be a sure way to keep those ttops looking good 5+ years from now.

 

Mine are all scratched up, will that procedure work for taking out the scratches also?

 

Yes, it's been documented before, and you may be able to use the search function to see if you can find anything about polishing lexan ttops, as one person shows his progress and a side by side of before and after as he had one done next to his other one and it was literally night and day difference, it turned into a beautiful top that almost looks like glass. That procedure will help the dullness and scratches disappear. Just be careful as too much heat from sanding will damage, or warp the material, and could leave flat spots, remember to keep the paper and ttop wet and moving your hand around in different spots. Having a hose draped over it wouldn't even hurt.

 

Just wanted to put one correction to what i said above, it will take care of most all little scratches and such, but not any deep scratches if you have any. I'd say anything within a hair in depth could be taken care of, but anything deeper you may look for a new set as to get it out would take a lot of time and away a lot of material. Here is one of the threads :

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...p-restore.html

 

Cool thanks for the help. I will give it a shot here after I am done with my college finals

 

You could just sand it it with a low grit how they said and then finish off with a 2000 grit and polish i did that to mine but it took me over4 hrs.