[Adam Baker]

I have noticed that brake fluid tends to leave the plastic brittle, its a method Ive decided to not use in the future for this reason.

As for the color bleeding through, thats just a problem w/ a model thats molded in red to begin w/. You have to put some kind of coat between the red plastic & the paint. One method that seems to work, is putting down a coat of silver paint over the red plastic, and it seals it so that it doesnt bleed through to the light colored paint.