Zord/Mecha cleaning tips

[Wing Knight]

I just got some new zords in the mail yesterday, and they are just downright filthy. I think they came from a smokers house, but unfortunately the seller neglected to tell me this (among other things.) Anyways, I have a bunch of dust and grime that I need to clean off. I want to know what you guys do or use to clean off dirty zords/mecha. I was thinking a q-tip and rubbing alcohol, but don't want to use that if it may somehow damage the color in any way or the stickers if I should accidentally brush it across them.

edit - I have one zord that was supposed to be white in color, but it has a yellowish tint due to coming from a smokers home. Tips on cleaning this by any chance...?

edit #2 - Is there a safe way to remove stickers so I would be able to place on new ones?

Thanks in advance people. :)

[BryanI305]

I bought a used Titanus that I also believed to have come from a smoker's home. Now, for a long time I was content with the slight yellowish tint, but there was one place I was unhappy about, and that was the inside of the tail pieces: there were little black dots of filth or dirt or something and they were stubborn as all hell. I had to clean them. In the process, I found that I was much happier with how the coloring of Titanus was restored, so I did it for the whole thing.

I used some basic but strong cleaning liquid that I found under the sink, stuff for the porcelain, I guess (next time I go to my mom's house, I'll let you know what it was). Armed with a cup of that solution, a plethora of Q-Tips and rags and no idea what I was doing, I set to work. In about an hour-and-a-half, I had a beautifully restored Titanus. Wish I had taken before and after pics but I didn't know that I'd have made so much difference to it.

Anyway, yeah, it didn't discolor anything, so I guess toilet bowl cleaners work.

EDIT: As for the stickers, I just worked around them.

[Enuo]

Try goo gone, scrubbing bubbles, and at the extreme you could try a clenser called awesome, its a clenser/degreaser.

Goo Gone is the best product for removing leftover sticker decal adhesive. I dont know how effective it would be to remove grime/smoke damage.

You could try scrubbing bubbles/awesome for smoke damage.

As for yellowing of plastic, thats a chemical reaction in the plastic due to uv exposure, not something on the surface you can wipe away. If its yellowed i suppose you could try glossy white acryllic or spray paint.

[JP]

Ive used rubbing alcohol on a bunch of megazords. I have a brachiozord that came from a smokers home, and it seemed to help take away some of the smell. I just used q-tips and cotton balls. It was pretty gross to see the grime that comes off once they are cleaned.

[kris198921]

can you post pics so we can get an idea.

[Phantom6]

I used Q-tips dipped in steaming hot water then squeezed (To remove excess water) for the hard to reach places, only after using compressed air to remove all the dust.

With ReproLabels beginning to cover PR toys you could remove all of the stickers and hard wash the entire thing.


Cleaning solutions (Diluted), Ultra fine sand paper (Some times the only way to remove a certain stain is to remove a little plastic with it.).

[A]

Goo Gone is the best product for removing leftover sticker decal adhesive. I dont know how effective it would be to remove grime/smoke damage.

Yeah, that's what I use. It removes grime, but not smoke damage. Be carefule though, if you rub a certain area too long, the plastic might rub off too. It also gives what you're cleaning a nice scent of orange.

[Peter]

The thing about that Goo Gone stuff -- which I discovered removing a sticker from one of my Megazords -- is that it also removes paint.

So if you are gonna use that stuff, be really careful when using it around the painted details of your zords. My Delta Megazord has one less window than it should, because a tiny touch of this stuff and the brown-painted-window just disappeared.

I just used ordinary cotton buds to clean most of my zords last year. The old thumb-nail-through-a-t-shirt worked well too. For stuff where the dust is really ingrained, I found running it under water while scrubbing lightly with a stiff brush worked wonders -- but that's only going to work on stickerless non-electronic stuff.

No matter what you do, though, it's gonna be a lot of hard work and a lot of effort. Worth it in the end, though.

I'm not sure how to remove smoke damage, unfortunately. The smell goes away over time, but I don't know what you can do about the yellowing-effect.

[Enuo]

i googled and found this article:

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189

Im surprised goo gone took paint off, i wouldnt have thought it potent enough to do that or harm plastic. I used it to clean my dragonzord to put reprolabels on it just fine, it didnt harm anything on the dragonzord at least. Ill admit i havent used it on anything with painted windows though. But goo gone is by far the best thing to remove sticker residue, in small controlled quantities.

Im rather surprised it wouldnt remove smoke damage, Ive used goo gone to remove sharpie from cdrs without hurting the cdr. If goo gone wouldnt remove smoke damage the next thing to try might be bleach, or awesome cleaner.

Yellowing of plastic, is a chemical reaction to uv exposure, darkening of white is due to grime/residue buildup on the plastic.

[A]

The thing about that Goo Gone stuff -- which I discovered removing a sticker from one of my Megazords -- is that it also removes paint.

So if you are gonna use that stuff, be really careful when using it around the painted details of your zords. My Delta Megazord has one less window than it should, because a tiny touch of this stuff and the brown-painted-window just disappeared.

Hmm, maybe it depends on the paint because when I use it, it only removes paint if I continue rubbing the same area, or if I rub real hard. But it's still a risk nonetheless.

Im rather surprised it wouldnt remove smoke damage, Ive used goo gone to remove sharpie from cdrs without hurting the cdr. If goo gone wouldnt remove smoke damage the next thing to try might be bleach, or awesome cleaner.

Well it gets rid of the smell, but the yellowing is something completely different. As for using it to remove sharpie of discs, that's kind of a waste for me because alcohol gets the job done perfectly.

[Peter]

As for using it to remove sharpie of discs, that's kind of a waste for me because alcohol gets the job done perfectly.

And you have so much more of that naturally anyway :005: :023:.

[Magmafire2374]

You want to avoid organic solvents. Organic solvents can mess with paint, color, and stickers. Or as suggested, dilute organic solvents with water before using them on the zords.

[Wing Knight]

You want to avoid organic solvents. Organic solvents can mess with paint, color, and stickers. Or as suggested, dilute organic solvents with water before using them on the zords.
I'll keep that in mind. Any suggestions on what to use (brand names would help)?

[A]

And you have so much more of that naturally anyway :005: :023:.

Hey, hey, hey, you shipped me some of that fine Australian booze. There's no way I can let it go to waste :D

[Enuo]

For sticker removal goo gone is the best product you can use just be careful around painted spots, it WONT harm the plastic but will definitely remove things on the surface of the plastic, paint, sticker residue and sharpie included.

For YELLOWING of white plastic your best safest bet is repainting with a white gloss paint. Because thats a chemical change in the plastic due to sunlight/uv exposure its not something that you can scrub away without taking off the first few layers of plastic.

However i have heard mixed results involving whitening toothpaste (which is a very fine abrasive like sandpaper but wont leave roughness or gouges like sandpaper might) and bleach, both of which are mentioned in the article I linked.

[Gekired0]

Gekired0's Guide to Cleaning Zords


1 if you can get Repro's then continue with the rest of the guide


2 strip off all the stickers the best you can

3 remove any of the goo from the stickers with warm water and a sculpting tool

4 dry with a soft towel and rub down any wet areas.

If all the goos gone heres what to do next


1 using pledge spray and a dusting rag, spray the polish on the areas of the zords that look dull and not bright.

2 gently rub the polish into the areas and repeate over.

after a few dust downs you'll have a zord that looks like it came straight out the box.

Get your repro's and stick away.

[Wing Knight]

Well, I've gone the "rubbing alcohol with cotton swabs & balls" route to cleaning my zords. I'm currently working on the Lightspeed Megazord, which I started tonight. It took me about and hour to do two of the five zords, HazRescue 4 and MedRescue 5. The "yellowish" tint on MedRescue (which, as you all know, is supposed to be white in color) came right off with the rubbing alcohol...it looks so much better, I'm very pleased. The "smokey" smell from both of them isn't nearly as bad now that I've cleaned them from head to toe. Only three more to go, then I will move on to the Dragonzord...this will be the difficult one since I have to clean it and remove the stickers to make room for the reprolabels going on. Thanks to everyone for the advice/tips, they were all pretty helpful and will be taken into consideration for use on future projects. :023:

[A]

Glad to hear the alcohol is working good so far. For that smell, you might want to try some Goo Gone. It would help in removing the Dragonzord stickers later on too.