Some basic restoration questions...

[AcroRay]

I recently acquired a trio of fixer-upper Mattel Shoguns - Daimos, a first version (I think) Mazinga, and Gaiking. They each suffer from common missing bits and damage, but they seem to have enough promise that I'm interested in restoring them and adding them to my childhood Raydeen and the Dragun that I bought at a yard sale down the street. Here's the new trio:



So I've got some basic questions regarding Jumbo Machinder materials and handling I hope someone can answer for me, please:

When removing limbs, heads and other pieces from Machinder polyethylene torsos, how is the best way to go about it? Should they be heated with a hair-dryer, hot water or some other heat source until they are pliable - like vinyl toys? Or is it better to try to carefully wriggle the parts free at normal temperature?

Are products like ArmorAll and other vinyl cleaners safe to use to brighten or polish Machinder plastics that has become dulled with age and wear? Or are the other polishes and cleaners that work better? What are common cleaning mistakes?

What glues - if any - are capable of bonding Jumbo Machinder plastics? And how strong are the resulting bonds? My Mazinga has a split seam on part of the main body. Can it be glued? If so, with what? Dragun's cape is splitting. What glue - if any - could be used to repair it?


Are automotive putties like Bond-O safe to build up broken surfaces on Jumbo polyethylene? Or do they reactive destructively to the plastics?

What paints are best to use on Jumbo Machinders?

[bourno]

I bumped a couple "glue" topics from the ole search. And there is a pretty recent "paint" topic on the first page here.

Removing heads, you need to warm the inside of the lower neck for much easier removal. Could use hot water, hair dryer, or carefully with a heat gun.  I typically just pop off body parts, but warming them up would most likely make that easier.

There may be an older thread on cleaning and buffing. I have used Old English on some of my parts to shine a little. Polyethylene is pretty tough stuff and hard to do something very bad. Not a lot of stuff sticks to this kind of plastic, think some have used plastic epoxy for fixing damage areas. Bondo may not stick very well or much at all.


Maybe an Admin can "sticky" the glue and paint threads

[bourno]

Oh, and welcome to the forum Ray

[AcroRay]

Thanks for the advice, and the thread bumps!

I started cleaning Daimos last night, and I'll be contacting you & ShogunPlastics about repro parts for him!

[faulkners2]

Welcome to the boards, Ray! Bourno and Derik at Shogun Plastics are your guys for repro parts and WillOhio is your guy for stickers. I know Bourno does a great repro firing fist for Daimos, as I have one of his on mine. It comes with the cuff and matches perfectly! I am glad to see that you are doing some refurbishment on your bots -- I think it is way more fun and meaningful to have one that was a junker but you have brought back. I find that heating the part with a hair dryer before removal makes it much easier to do, especially for small parts like the missile racks on Mazinger's legs. Also, for minor cracks and separations, I find that superglue works great but you have to apply it carefully so it doesn't smear on the outside and show up. I get the thick kind so it doesn't run. I have used Armor All to restore the shine to parts and it works well. However, I think Bourno is right in that the plastic is very tough and not much sticks to it, so a little soap and water and elbow grease does great. If you have white parts that have yellowed, stick them in hydrogen peroxide (enough to cover them) and put them in the sun and let them soak and they will come out white again. Also, patience and eBay will reward you with various parts that people have removed and are selling. You can probably find some horns for Gaiking that way. Good luck!

[AcroRay]

This is the stuff I use to strip and clean paint & stuff from plastic: "LA's Totally Awesome". This concentrated degreaser-cleaner is available at Dollar Tree stores for $1. It'll take stains out of laundry, too. Biodegradable. You can use it in the kitchen sink. (Your sink will be nice and shiny when you're done!) No foul odors. It is comparable to Simple Green. Actually, it's much less smelly than Simple Green. You can pour your used stuff back in the bottle and re-use it. Any paint flakes in the cleaner will have lost their adhesive capabilities. Although you might want to strain larger bits out.

I've been using it on Daimos, submerging the parts in the undiluted cleaner. It stripped off the red spray paint. It also neutralized the glue on the decals. And while the decals didn't float off, scrubbing them off or using my fingernails to scrape them off left no glue residue whatsoever. The results look like they've never been decorated with anything.

If you have traditional styrene model kits, it will also take enamel and acrylic paint right off of that plastic as well.

[magengar]

Here's what I do for removing the heads, limbs, and other large parts:

I place the entire jumbo inside my Dishwasher machine (at the restaurant
where I work) and run a cycle or two (hot water 180-200 degrees Fahrenheit)...
...at that high temperature, the parts will soften...
...as soon as the machine cycle is done, I immediately start removing
the parts while they're still hot and soft, CAREFULLY, so that they'll
come off easily.
I do mean Carefully, because if you remove them Aggressively
the parts could tear at their connections.
At this point you have to just remove a couple parts at a time since
they cool down quickly and the plastic becomes hard again.
When that happens, I run the jumbo through the machine again and
finish removing a couple more parts, then into the machine again
and remove the remaining parts until the jumbo is entirely dismantled.

Not everyone has access to a restaurant dishwasher machine...
...you can use a Home dishwasher machine, if you have one.
If you don't have a dishwasher machine, you can just hold the
jumbo under running HOT water in the areas of the parts you
want to remove. That way you can remove one part at a time.

A hair dryer also helps, if it is temperature-controlled
for Hi and Lo settings.

Heat Guns: Fine, but you must NOT concentrate the heat gun
at the area too long... if you do, the part will melt and
so will the surrounding area, and your jumbo will be ruined.

Keep in mind, this hot water method and the hot air method
are okay for jumbos that are in the used/2nd-hand condition
BEFORE they are to be restored or customized.

Once your jumbo has been restored or customized, from then on
you just have to keep it clean routinely to keep it
dust/dirt-free and looking good as new at all times.

Hope this helps.

zozo-mag

[magengar]

@ Faulkners2:
I like the Hydrogen Peroxide idea for whitening yellowed parts.
After leaving the parts in the peroxide out in the sun,
how long does it take to whiten the parts?

I have a couple of old Gundam kits I'm thinking of painting.
However, their white armor parts have slightly yellowed...
...at the edges... and I'm inclined to leave them that way
for a "weathered" look.
But, weathering usually appears in the gray or near-black
shade spectrum. Therefore, using the yellowing as a
"weathering" effect probably won't seem right by
Gunpla standards. lol

But, for jumbos and everything else, I'll try the peroxide
method for brightening up stuff.
Thanks for the tips!

zozo-mag

[faulkners2]

It takes about 2 or 3 hours. Mag. Just make sure they are in direct sun. It works great!

[magengar]

Excellent!  And I've got plenty of open sun space in my backyard, too.
That's more than enough time to allow me to work on other stuff
while I wait for the parts to whiten. Thanks!

zozo-mag

Jun 14, 2013 7:03:51 GMT -5 faulkners2 said:

It takes about 2 or 3 hours. Mag. Just make sure they are in direct sun. It works great!

[bourno]

Here is the "sticky" from the area just above this one. robotjapan.proboards.com/thread/16865/preventive-maintenance-plastics-cure

[AcroRay]

Would the peroxide-sauna have a negative effect on paint? For example, if i were to give Daimos' head a peroxide bath, would it damage the paint?

I know you can kiss decals goodbye if you do.

What's the difference between doing this, and using the more-complicated "Retr0brite" method?

(I've got a Takatoku 1/3000 MACROSS that needs the yellowing fixed. I've got repro decals...)

[faulkners2]

Yeah, I think you are going to lose paint and decals in peroxide.

[Mr. Ginrai]

You will also have some problems with surfaces and corrosion if you have screws or metal parts when you do the peroxide bath or vapor method.

[bowhntr66]

Water down the peroxide and use a q-tip on Diamos' face. Being a hunter, I've "bleached" a few things with peroxide. The brand you get at the store is mild compared to food grade peroxide but still needs diluted for anything with dye or paint.

[AcroRay]

So, when the edges and corners of your Machinders have that worn, 'fuzzy' scuffing that seems to come as a result of play on concrete - what do you do to smooth that out? Is sanding the best way to deal with it? If so, what sanding tools and polishing materials work best?

And, has anyone tried those polishing/cleaning sponges that are so popular now for working staining out of surfaces?

[MazinKaiserSKL666]

Just figured out a great way to remove old sticker residue. Gorilla tape. Peel the top layer of paper sticker off of the jumbo and the residual paper and adhesive will remain. Take gorilla tape and press it down over area hard then smooth it down with top of your fingernail then rip it off. Takes a few rinse and repeats but after a few minutes most will be gone. Anything small remaining should come off with finger nail. Old adhesive residue loves this stuff. It wants to go home with it. Wouldn't work well on most other surface as it would pull of paint probably and such but an unprinted area of polyethylene works great.

[AcroRay]

I've seen Gorilla Tape pull mortar out of brickwork!

[magengar]

For the fuzzy scuffing, and again IF the jumbo is in PRE-restoration condition,
I'd use a green Scotch-brite scrubby pad or very light grained sandpaper,
just a gentle wet-sanding with a dab of water in a tight Circular motion
to smooth and polish the scuffed surface.

By gentle, I mean do Not apply pressure against the surface, let the pad
or sandpaper lightly touch the surface as you move it in a slow circular motion.
Repeat until the fuzziness is gone.

zozo-mag

Jun 18, 2013 9:39:35 GMT -5 AcroRay said:

So, when the edges and corners of your Machinders have that worn, 'fuzzy' scuffing that seems to come as a result of play on concrete - what do you do to smooth that out? Is sanding the best way to deal with it? If so, what sanding tools and polishing materials work best?

And, has anyone tried those polishing/cleaning sponges that are so popular now for working staining out of surfaces?

[AcroRay]

Do you mean like 400 or 600 grit sandpaper, or something even more fine? (400 usually works on my model rockets, but that's primer & filler, not PE.)