Using brake fluid to remove paint?

[RobertInOntario]

One of my older British Tri-ang locos was originally British Railways (BR) black but about 1-2 years ago I decided to change its paint scheme or livery to apple green. I had to paint this by hand since I could not find the colour I wanted in the spray-can kind.

Long story short: I’m not pleased with my results (you can see the brush strokes & it looks amateur-ish) so I want to remove the green paint and return the loco back into its black livery.

I took this loco to my LHS and they recommended using cheap brake fluid for this. They said I should test the brake fluid on a small piece of the loco’s plastic body first to see it is causes any damage (it probably won’t) and, if it seems OK, to then soak the loco’s plastic body in the brake fluid overnight. They emphasized getting the cheaper kind of brake fluid as the more expensive kinds do not work very for this.

If this is successful, and the paint nicely dissolves overnight, I will then clean up the body and repaint the loco’s body with black spray paint. Once that’s dry, I might spray it again with a clear gloss coat. I already have the correct BR decals on hand for this.

Just checking if anyone else has done this sort of thing and if they have any further suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

Rob