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Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) or Acetone


Dartagnan

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At some stage I am going to do a couple of small touch ups to my top sides.  Reading that prep is the key and ensuring that he surface to be painted is clean and clear of oils, grease etc I was considering either using either IPA or Acetone after initially washing the area.  Are either of these products suitable for this task and if so which is best for this purpose?

Being a cheap skate I would like to buy something which can also be used for other purposes such as cleaning my Gardner engine.  I’m not bothered about removing nail polishes as I don’t tend to use them ?

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Panel Wipe/Spirit Wipe from car supply palaces. I get mine from a paint suppliers in Banbury but most large towns have one. Made for the job and about £5 to £6 for a litre or about £20 to £25 for 5 litres. Keep the top screwed on and it should last for years. I am told it also removes silicons

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2 hours ago, nicknorman said:

IPA is normally used. Acetone is pretty harsh. Fine if you are back to bare steel but probably not a good idea to put it on any paint.

 

 

Agreed. Acetone is pretty good as a degreaser or cleaner. IPA is not nearly as strong. It all depends on what you need to clean. In the 70's/80's I would always use acetone from work (so free) on my car engines....IPA was just not good enough. For repaint prep though, acetone is going to be too strong and IPA will certianly work. I do drink a lot of IPA as well.

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16 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

Panel Wipe/Spirit Wipe from car supply palaces. I get mine from a paint suppliers in Banbury but most large towns have one. Made for the job and about £5 to £6 for a litre or about £20 to £25 for 5 litres. Keep the top screwed on and it should last for years. I am told it also removes silicons

Thank you very much, after having ‘looked it up’ that is exactly the product I need.  Once again superb advice from you. 

16 hours ago, nicknorman said:

IPA is normally used. Acetone is pretty harsh. Fine if you are back to bare steel but probably not a good idea to put it on any paint.

 

I wouldn’t put either on my engine! Definitely not acetone, anyway.

Thank you for the advice.  I won’t now be using it on the engine. ?

14 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Agreed. Acetone is pretty good as a degreaser or cleaner. IPA is not nearly as strong. It all depends on what you need to clean. In the 70's/80's I would always use acetone from work (so free) on my car engines....IPA was just not good enough. For repaint prep though, acetone is going to be too strong and IPA will certianly work. I do drink a lot of IPA as well.

Thanks for the clarification.  As you can probably tell chemicals are not my thing.   After nearly burning our house down in the very early 70’s I was banned from messing with test tubes and naked flames. ?

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1 hour ago, BWM said:

Sugar soap is very useful for light degreasing before painting, only use where you intend to paint as it may take the gloss off, not much use on an engine but cheap.

That’s good to hear as I already have some of that.  Bought it for some decorating around the house which I never got round to.

i appear to be quite keen on doing little bits and pieces to the boat but I can’t be ar*ed doing things around the house  ?  The car also gets mollycoddled and if I’m not careful I suspect I am going to get an earful from the Mrs

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46 minutes ago, jake_crew said:

I'd be wary of using any strong solvent on modern paint.  Even panel wipe might not suit white spirit based paints.

 

Whatever you choose do a test spot first and wait 24 hrs to check no "pickling" has occurred.

To clarify I can assure you that it seems to do no harm to well cured Masons, moderately and well cured paint from second line marine suppliers and painted 1 day ago Johnson professional gloss. All oil based.

 

I also use sugar soap on abrasive pads for places where I am sure there are no silicones and so far no major adhesion problems.

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On 10/09/2018 at 13:28, WotEver said:

Maybe worth a watch. Skip to 58” to avoid the excruciating intro sequence: 

 

Interesting.  I have seen a few of his videos but not that particular one.  It was from the car detailing world that I got my concerns about cleaning the area prior to painting in so much that there was a suggestion that traces of oil/waxes etc may be left behind meaning that in time the painted surface would deteriorate.  I don’t think I will be going down the route of £20 for 500ml based on his white board theory lol

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