Any good ways to take apart a pre-glued kit?

At a second-hand store I found myself a Tamiya RX-7 R1 kit for $2.99 CDN!! Problem is, whoever had it first glued much of it together. Other than that, this kit is complete. I'd love to get the engine out and use it in my C-West RX-7, but don't want to damage it. None of the pieces are painted.

Any ideas, or should I, "just pull"?

i just pull on my kits but i have to be careful. sometimes my old kits arent glued together that well anyways, and sometimes they are stuck.

Im not sure about this and maybe someone else might know but I would think that soaking it in brake fluid or some kind of thinner would dissolve the glue and the pices would come free??

you can buy superglue remover at walmart that breaks down gule somewhat so you can pullit apart.

you can buy superglue remover at walmart that breaks down gule somewhat so you can pullit apart.

Really? I've never seen that. Any ideas if it's safe for plastic? I guess that might be a "try and find out" answer...

A trick I learned is to put it in the freezer. If it's put together with superglue, the joints will pop apart quite easily after it sits in the freezer for a while. If it's put together with a plastic glue (testors, ambroid, tamiya, tenax, etc.), then the joints are probably going to be a bit tougher. They'll usually pop apart, but you might need to cut into the joint a bit with an exacto knife first (to weaken the bond.)

Murray

I've been wondering the same thing, because I will need to glue some stuff together, modify the main piece, then dissassemble it for paint.

Really? I've never seen that. Any ideas if it's safe for plastic? I guess that might be a "try and find out" answer...

I'll let you know when i get home, i put it on the front bumper of my civic hatch b/c i'm now going to use a sas bumber and it would not come loose in the front. no damage could be seen last night, the stuff smells pretty stout but i don't think it's gonna harm it. Hell, i don't even know if it's gonna work b/c the plastic has already bonded pretty good and it can't get between the 2 pieces.

Im working on testing the freezer method.

Well the freezer method works. If there are globs and globs of glue its going to take longer. For me I just stuck and old B16 engine in the freezer for 10 minutes and pryed the pieces off gently with an X-Acto. I had glued the pegs, as well as the flush edged together.