Removing Tape

Marshall Wright · Post by **Marshall Wright** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:54 pm

I had posted a question seeking advice on removing tape that I had left on too long. In my case much too long. FWIW, a technique that worked for me.

Use Gunk Off. I quickly bought a quart of xylene, its primary ingrediant. Apply liberally with a small brush to soak. Reapply after several minutes. Then spray with 3M adhesive remover. The 3M product does not work by itself. In fact, its only use appears to greatly slow the evaporation rate of the xylene which evaporated so quickly it has a hard time getting to the adhesive through the waxy paper of the tape. Let sit for 5 minutes and use a new, sharp razorblade to remove the bulk of the tape on flat surfaces. I used a small piece of sharpened fiberglass board to scrap the tape from rounded and OGEE shaped deck areas where I couldn't safely use the blade. This will expose the last of the adhesive. Reapply more xylene, a foot at a time, and immediately remove with a piece of very fine steel wool dipped in xylene. Works like a charm.

Take appropriate steps to product your health from the xylene and your boat from the steel wool. I"d have used bronze wool but couldn't find any fine enough to not damage my gelcoat. Found some words of caution regarding xylene and fiberglass but I had no problems.

Marshall

earlylight · Post by **earlylight** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:22 pm

Yikes !!!!! Steel wool? We had a fellow who had the boatyard do an awlgrip job on his decks, coachroof and cockpit and several weeks later he used steel wool for something or other on deck and the next day when he arrived back at his boat, he had rust spots ALL OVER the place. The dew had turned his gorgeous paint job into a total disaster. It looked like the boat had chickenpox. He ended up having to remove all his deck hardware again and they had to sand the boat again and shoot two more coats of awlgrip to the tune of about 6000 dollars. I hope you have better luck than he did.

Case · Post by **Case** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:09 pm

Steel Wool is a...

BAD IDEA.

Better not to risk it again even though there was no problems in the past. I really cringed at the mention of steel wool.

In my case, just using straight razor to scrape the worst off then rubbing a rag soaked with paint thinner removed all of the tape residue. I repeated this step a few times as necessary (this was the hard part, really annoying). Never needed any type of wool, steel or bronze. Its also a good idea to sand the edges of the straight razor so to reduce the chances of gouging the gelcoat or paint.

- Case

Post by **Tim** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:20 am

earlylight wrote:Yikes !!!!! Steel wool?

Case wrote:Steel Wool is a...

BAD IDEA.

My sentiments exactly.

I hope you don't have a disastrous situation like the one recounted above, but even if you don't this time for some reason, keep the steel wool in your kitchen where it belongs and don't press your luck.

For future reference, fine bronze wool (#00) is widely available. Google brings up many good sources.

Quetzalsailor · Post by **Quetzalsailor** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:14 am

Somehow scratching paint or gel in the interest of cleanliness...

Anyway, if driven to such an abrasive, how about bronze wool? I'm not so sure it comes in all the levels of fineness that the steel does, mine's pretty coarse.

Al · Post by Al » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:04 am

I've successfully used Goof Off and the new plastic razor blades to remove pretty tough glue and tape residue.

Hirilondë · Post by **Hirilondë** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:30 pm

Al wrote:I've successfully used Goof Off and the new plastic razor blades to remove pretty tough glue and tape residue.

Those plastic blades don't work for everything, but they definitely have their place. Worth a try.

BTW, 3M adhesive remover uses xylene, but diluted with other stuff to reduce the evaporation rate.

Ceasar Choppy · Post by **Ceasar Choppy** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:41 pm

I've had good luck with Xylol which, I believe, is the singular form of Xylene, and is available at the hardware store. The evaporation rate is about the same as paint thinner and it works very well as an adhesive remover and does not mess up Awlgrip. It is a fairly strong solvent so you need to take the usual precautions.