The challenge is to remove adhesive goo from the inside the Chipewan’s royalex hull. Some of the adhesive looks like Weldwood. Some is black goo left from black foam padding, the kind where you peel off the paper backing to expose a surface of factory applied adhesive.
A review of the archives identifies the following recommendations for removing adhesives from boat hulls: alcohol, acetone, mineral spirits, WD40, peanut butter, vegetable oil, goo gone or goo off, and heat.
I tried mineral spirits and alcohol. They seemed fractionally helpful. Heat was defiantely helpful, but I think using the heat gun on royalex is flirting with disaster. It seems to me that vegetable oil and peanut butter are just two types of oil, unlikely to be any better than mineral spirits, but I will listen if somebody wants to correct me on that. I think Acetone might eat royalex. I will try WD40 and goo gone.
If you have info on the best way to get rid of the old adhesive residue, please post your recommendation. Or maybe I just need to scrape and sand away as much of the material as is practical and just live with it. Whadda ya think?
~~Chip Walsh, Gambrills, MD
When the usual
doesn’t cut it, I’ve had some very good luck with carburator cleaner, available at your local auto parts store.
This stuff is definately nasty, you may want to mask off areas that do not have the goop on them, or dab the areas affected with a soaked rag.
It’s cheap, and it is a highly effective solvent.
As Mike said, contact adhesive will soften contact adhesive. No doubt about it. I think it’s the acetone in the adhesive that works until it evaporates, or whatever chemical change takes place.
T
Thanks, gents
Oh, the joys of working with weldwood adhesive! I can’t wait.
I try to be frugal with that old time ingredient, Mike. It works good, but is in increasingly short supply at my house!
I might leave that job for later. Might as well find out if the hulk will ever float again before going to the elbow grease.
Ever try using a laundry iron for heating old adhesive? I have a clunker used to wax skis. Believe it or not, with my hair, I don’t have a hair dryer.
Thanks for the suggestions ~~ Chip
removing goo from craft
On the first paddle of my (then) new black gold Bell Rob Roy, I quickly concluded, that they had glued the seat too far forward. A phone call to Bell to get the correct seat location measurements confirmed that opinion- The seat was 1.5 inches too far forward. They sent me a new seat.
I removed the old seat and all adhesive residue using Mike’s favorite stuff, elbow grease. The only tool used was a nylon spatula to slowly slide under and pry up the seat and the remaining adhesive. The black gold material has a weave mostly filled on the inside, with some texture remaining. Don’t know if royalex would be harder or easier. I would guess easier, but could be wrong.
Never did glue down the new seat, as I liked the ability to move the seat back and forth a bit at times. (Sold the Rob Roy to buy a Rapidfire last Fall)
Dave