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OK, 20 minutes into the acetone bath and we are seeing results, as evidenced by the slimy feathers of yellowy clearcoat floating away from the wheel. OK, before and after about 1.5 hrs and some close in toothpick work..
Left before, Right after. Acetone. Edit: Yikes this second wheel is not as easy as the first. The stuff is coming off, just not as easily. I swapped out fresh acetone and still......we'll see.

TRX-1-3 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 6:39 pm OK, 20 minutes into the acetone bath and we are seeing results, as evidenced by the slimy feathers of yellowy clearcoat floating away from the wheel.
20240112_083622.jpg

This is fantastic, as I was too sally to dip them in acetone myself. Which may likely remove the stubborn chrome I couldn't get removed from my set.

Yeah, the next question in my head was, can we just start at acetone? But I think the chrome is impenetrable to acetone and the base coat isn't. I think acetone only, from the beginning would take a really long time....having to seep in and under from any little breaches in the chrome layer.

OK so we know that Rit must have changed its
formulation or something over the years and people began to have mixed results with their straight "black" on nylon parts. It has been reported that their "Dye More" line of products works well. It is touted (by Rit) as being specially formulated to work with synthetic fiber. Not sure why they had to replace "black" with "graphite", but we will see how it goes. I will be dyeing some parts soon and will post the results of the HPI SS buggy fronts.

OK here is the final result of the acetone strip of the base coat (upon which the chrome was chromed). I mentioned that the second wheel (the one on the left in the top pic and it's on the right in the bottom pic [just to make things more confusing]) was very stubborn. After stripping them, it looks like they may be two different plastic types or variations. My guess is that the base coat had better adhesion to the wheel surface. This is the same wheel in the before before pics that shows very little chrome loss/flaking. Hopefully, black is black and they both end up the same. The lighter wheel has more of that translucent nylon look and the other one looks more ABSish. Neither melted in the acetone though..hmm

OK, time to transition this thread from "stripping super star wheels" back to "dyeing super star wheels" They in the pot. It's been about 30 minutes at just under a boil. Looks promising. I do have some concerns about the trace amounts of lacquer base coat remaining in some nooks and crannies. Hopefully the heat and dye either remove it or blow through it.

OK, they took the dye pretty well. They do look a bit different, but I think that's the plastic difference. But here is the real deal, as I hang my head in shame....THEY GOT A LITTLE WORBLED/OUT-OF-ROUND. It seems like symmetrically F'd like "high" spots between the spokes and "flat" spots at the spokes. Like the stars shrunk. First items that I've had do anything like that when dyeing parts. They are a bit more delicate than other wheels I've dyed and I'm not sure they are nylon. Some kind of blend? Anyway, WATCH YOUR TEMPERATURE! I think I'll use the JC Racing wheels for the build I had in mind for these and maybe try again later, short of finding a pair of factory black HPI SS buggy fronts.....oh well.

That sucks. Needless to say, mine will now be painted.

Thanks for all of this great information. I am planning to dye some HPI wheels, and now I know to really watch the temperature.

Could be a combo of the acetone bath and the heat from dying.

I used to boil all my hpi star rims back in the day to get old tires off them with no issues

Yeah, I'm not too bent about it, but bent enough to be bent. Pretty sure I just came at it a little too aggressive. But at least now I only have to deal with 2.2" tires on 2.15" rims on the rear. Making compromises on a "replica" pretty much makes it not a replica. And when they start adding up it becomes something like a "tribute build" that "captures the spirit of".... lesson learned.