Removing Foam Rubber Strips

[revilla]

Today I had to remove the foam rubber strips on which the bonnet rests, along the sides and across the nose cone, as the foam itself was perished. It was a pig of a job to get the foam and the sticky paper backing off. The only technique I found which worked was to scrub the foam off the backing layer with a plastic scraper then soak it in paraffin to soften the glue and pick at it with a finger nail. Quite apart from the fact that it took about two hours, this did not seem like kind treatment for the paintwork!

 

i) Does anyone know anything that works better?

ii) Is the foam strip sold by Caterham reasonably durable? Or does anyone know of anything better to replace it with?

 

Thanks.

[Jonathan Kay]

I've just spent a fair amount of time cleaning sticky paper competition labels off bikes. The best technique I found was to try and peel from an edge, and when that failed to spray with computer cleaning fluid (which is probably isopropyl alcohol) and then roll the crud up into little worms with my fingers. That did it without picking at it.

There are third-party recommendations and rough thicknesses in the archives for the foam strips for both the bonnet and the heater unit. Let me know if you can't find them.

Happy Christmas

Jonathan

 

 

[revilla]

Jonathan,

 

Happy Christmas to you too.

 

Isopropyl alcohol was one of the first solvents I tried. It's usually pretty good but in this case it did nothing at all. The backing strip was very firmly attached to the paintwork and there was no chance of rolling it back.

 

I will see if I can persuade this funny search facility to come up with anything useful on the foam strip front. Will get back to you if I get stuck!

[SM25T]

Have you tried warming it on a low heat from an electric hot air gun ? White spirit softens the adhesive from memory.

[7 wonders of the world]

WD40 usually works

[AndrewB]

I have used a hair drier before to get stickers off.  

[Stridey]

I always.use liquid lighter fuel for sticky stuff removal. Cheap and available at most shops that sell cigarettes. 

[DJ.]

Lighter fluid worked for me too. I bought self adhesive neoprene strip from ebay which has worked well as a replacement.

Duncan

[Roger Ford]

I find white spirit rather better than petrol or lighter fluid for removing sticky stuff. With petrol it tends to disolve and leave a messy film which is quite hard to get off, whereas with white spirit it tends to come off onto the cloth you're wiping with.

[revilla]

Thanks guys, some good ideas to try there.

[Alan Reeves]

White spirit....I bought new rubber in a couple is sizes of the net....shout if u need my to look up the supplier

 

[Roger Ford]

I just tried some hands-on research, since the job needed doing on mine as well.

I tried WD40, lighter fluid and white spirit.  To be honest there wasn't much difference between them, though I thought the white spirit did have the edge.  All were hard work. Pre-soaking the glue/rubber remains helped. WD40 smells the best.

[Jonathan Kay]

... did have the edge...

:-)

if you'd included methanol you could have done that test blinded!

Happy Christmas

Jonathan

[Ian B]

I use this, which seems to shift most things, and if you breath it in for too long 

Otherwise I find petrol or brake cleaner work well depending on the goo/surface.

[Jonathan Kay]

Yes, those proprietary removing sprays work for domestic stuff, but the web has not come to consensus on whether they beat WD40. :-)

I'd forgotten about gentle heat, which has lots of reported success.

As usual, I don't recommend brake cleaner (which is very different stuff from different suppliers) anywhere near paintwork. Or lungs.

Jonathan

[revilla]

Thanks for all the comments and thanks to Roger Ford for doing practical research on my behalf. I did try gentle heat from a heat gun and didn't seem to be getting anywhere although I didn't let things get very warm as I didn't want to damage the paint - maybe it just needed a bit more guts and commitment.

The experiences with white sprit, WD40 and lighter fluid (probably best not combined with heat) seem similar to mine with paraffin. Looks like it's just an unpleasant job then, however you do it, no miracle solutions that I had missed.

PS: Methanol - Very clever as usual Jonathan  

[Jonathan Kay]

Miracle solutions. It's the way you tell 'em. :-)

But we both missed a possibility there with the spirit of Xmas...

Jonathan