Is it ok to wash cars with alcohol or is dish soap better prior to airbrushing? rambo1…
Everyone I knwo tells me to use dish soap. That reminds me I have to do some painting…
Dish soap is better. Alcohol can leave a residue that interferes with paint adhesion. Better yet, just put them in the top rack of the dishwasher, just be careful of delicate parts or Cannon parts which are rather thin plastic that might warp or don’t use a heated dry cycle.
The quality of the paint job is determined by the quality of the surface prep before painting. Faint traces of mold parting compound, paint thinner, finger prints, oil or grease, and a host of other things, will cause the new paint to peel, wrinkle, bubble, and in general look ugly.
Hot soapy water, followed by a clean water rinse is a good way to start. Don’t touch the model with your bare hands after washing. A pass thru the dishwasher will yield a squeaky clean model. Be ware that the dishwasher is pretty rough stuff. The powder dishwash detergent often has enough TSP in it to remove poorly bonded paint and possibly attack some adhesives. Bare plastic parts will survive nicely but I would worry about complete painted and assembled carbodies.
Somewhat safer is a hand wash in hot water with liquid dish detergent followd by a clean water rinse and then air dry.
A rag moistened with alcohol is good for getting grease spots off. Alcohol dries clean, no residue. Alcohol mixes with water, unlike paint thinner, and som can be rinsed off in hot water. I suppose you can soak a model in a container of alcohol but I always use soap and water cause it’s cheaper.
Dawn dish soap and a tooth brush.[tup]
Good comments above.
Alcohol is great to use as a paint stripper. However, if you choose to use it as a final wipe be observant. Make sure your cloth is not overly wet and that your surface is dry after wiping. While alcohol does evapoarates quickly, if there are tiny pockets or crevices on the surface that you are about to paint, look closely and make certain that there are no tiny wet alcohol droplets inside those nooks and crannies. If you spray immedietly after you wipe; those puddles will still evaporate and break through the paint finish surface, casuing tiny splotches on solvent based paints.
Loathar is on the mark. Dawn liquid soap is cheap, does a great job, and doesn’t leave a residue behind.
When preping an undec car I wash it with dish detergent and a soft bristle toothebrush. This removes the mold release fluid. Allow the car to air dry for a couple of days before primering.
always wash in soapy water and rinse clean, i found out the hard way that alcohol is a very good paint stripper went thru future wax, dull coat by testors, and acrylics by tamiya right down to my primer by mister surfacer 1000, good thing is that i managed to dry it off (read smear)down to the primer which wasn’t harmed[:O][censored] then i had to repeat the entire cab on that gp7
For years, I’d throw my locomotive shells and 1/25 car bodies into the dishwasher. It used to drive my mother nuts 
Along the same lines as cars, what about steam locomotives? Do you disassemble them to prep for paint or just carefully clean them the best you can?
Best regards,
Jeff
I started painting brass electrics and steamers over 60 years ago. The technique is still the same. Steamers are best painted when disassembled. For brass, my first step is an acetone wash with a natural bristle brush to remove any of the lacqer coating and solder flux. Then a wash with dish detergent and hot water. The most important step is a soak in white vinegar to produce a slight etch to provide some “tooth” for the primer. For plastic, it is the same as the others have recommended, only for zero residue, I use distilled water (or RO filtered water) for the rinse and a hair dryer to remove all moisture