Removing duct tape residue.

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Thu May 15 21:56:09 2003

At 06:38 PM 5/15/03 -0500, Toth wrote:
>On Thu, 15 May 2003, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
>> On Thu, 15 May 2003, Joe wrote:
>>
>> > > Has anyone tried removing Sharpie from a chassis with textured
>> > > paint? I have a couple of items that were marked up with a Sharpie,
>> > > and short of paint thinner (which seems to dilute and bury the ink
>> > > in the paint while damaging the texture), I've found nothing that
>> > > seems to work.
>> >
>> > I've used alcohol on that stuff and it seems to remove some but not
>> > all of it. I've never found anything that would remove it completely.
>>
>> Try using a stiff plastic bristle brush with the alcohol. It'll get
>> deeper into the texture and remove more.
>
>The textured paint I have with sharpie on it has a very light texture. The
>problem seems to be that the paint is "soft", or some kind of scratch
>resistant paint, and the sharpie was pulled down into tiny pores in the
>paint. I've been wondering if I'd be better off just repainting the
>covers, as they aren't very large. I just don't know where I'd get that
>kind of paint, or how it needs to be cured.

   Check with automotive paint suppliers. They have every color under the
rainbow and now that most of the new cars are being made of plastic they
carry paint that's designed for use on plastic. Paint made for metal
finishes never does work well on plastic. It's not flexible enough and it
usually flakes and peels. You'd probably have to buy a minimum of a quart
of paint so the cost might be prohibitive. You'd also need a GOOD
compressor and spray gun and a place to spray so it's a big investment.

   The problem is that most computer stuff seems to use a peeble finish and
not a smooth finish. You need to sand the surface in order to get the paint
to stick but if you do you lose the peeble finish. If you don't sand then
the new paint flakes off and in addition the new paint fills a lot of
peeble finish anyway. You might be able to bead blast it to roughen the
surface without losing the finish but now you need more equipment!

   I see on TV that they now have lasers that can burn off dark spots like
freckles and tatoos without burning the lighter color skin around them. I
wonder if something like that could be used to burn off dark marker stains
without damaging the lighter surrounding area. Yeah I know that kind of
equipment is expensive but I wonder if it would work. If so there are some
of us that could build their own lasers or modify existing ones. Just an idea.

    Joe
Received on Thu May 15 2003 - 21:56:09 BST