Cleaners on gelcoat

[Scott B.]

I have some stubburn old sealants and caulking on the gelcoat where I temporarily removed teak and other appendages on my boat. What is the best and safest cleaner? Can I use denatured alcohol? Acetone (can says do not use on plastics)? What will work best on these materials which are literally "stuck" (like sticky tape residue) to the surface.

[henry hey]

Interesting that you are asking about this.

I did all my brightwork this winter and some other stuff and now my gelcoat is a bit of a mess. I was out there today to clean it up and I made some progress with a 3m pad and some murphy's soap. I figure that it's pretty low impact although I am sure I am rubbing off some of the gelcoat in the process -- that may be the only way to really get some of this stuff up.

I would love to find something that attacks other stuff and leaves the gelcoat alone.

h

[Steve Kuhar]

Scott,

If you are dealing with old adhesives you might try one of several products such as "Goof Off, or Goo B Gone" and then wash with soap and water immediately afterwards to remove residuals. Now if anyone has an idea for safely removing cetol from fiberglass, sailcovers, masts, and every other surface on a boat I would sure like to hear it. One of my boats previous owners evidently did not believe in taping, but did believe that cetol could be applied with a floor mop. I have been working at it for over a year, and it still is not all gone.

Steve Kuhar

[bottomscraper]

Boatlife has a product called "Release Adhesive & Sealant Remover". I used it when I was replacing the depth transducer, it loosened up the old sealant which I think was polysulfide. It seems to break the bond with the base substance but doesn't dissolve the sealant so it doesn't make much of a mess. It's a bit pricey so you may want to try something from the local hardware store first.


http://www.boatlife.com/productsdetail. ... =76&cat=CM

PS.

You can use acetone or alcohol, it won't harm the gel coat but probably won't do much for the dried adhesive either. Acetone will disolve uncured polyester resin but once cured it won't do much to it.

[Carter Brey]

A Florida sailor on the Sabre mailing list says that he had a lot of varnish spills on his nonskid. He brushed on Orange Citrus and covered it with Saran Wrap to keep it from drying out overnight. The next day he hosed it off and scrubbed lightly with a stainless steel brush. It came off and did not harm the gelcoat.

I haven't yet tried this, but I plan to very soon.

Carter

[Mike Thompson]

This applies to stray droplets of cetol or adhesive. I hold the spoon with the concave part down and scrape with the tip. The spoon is not sharp. The action seems to crush the offending material. The average "stainless" spoon seems to be made of a metal softer than gelcoat and this action leaves grey marks on the surface which easily removable with fibreglass restorer.
Mike

[Warren Kaplan]

When youse guys get this "easy stuff" (Ha!) off the gelcoat and non skid maybe ya' wanna have a crack at the big leagues and attempt removing high test Cetol stains off the deck without removing the gelcoat with it.

I used some bad tape (the blue stuff) years ago and unbeknownst to me Cetol easily got under it and thoroughly dried by the time I removed the tape days later. Years of sun has faded it some but I'd love to find some magic bullet to remove the Cetol while sparing my gelcoat. Any ideas?

[Kurt]

I've used acetone, terry cloth and a lot of elbow grease to remove dried Cetol...although the Cetol had only been dry for a couple days.

[Warren Kaplan]

I've used acetone, terry cloth and a lot of elbow grease to remove dried Cetol...although the Cetol had only been dry for a couple days.

Kurt,

I was under the impression that you have to be very careful using acetone on gelcoat. Did you notice if much gelcoat came off with the old dried cetol??

[Dick Barthel]

Warren,

I have the same problem in spots, especially around the base of my hand rails. I have thought of using Aqua Strip applied directly to the spot carefully with a cue tip. It is not supposed to hurt gelcoat in any event. If that doesn't work, I intend to use regular varnish remover but this time I'd tape the stain off, apply carefully and remove real quickly, because real varnish remover will harm gelcoat. Also concentrated heat might help first before applying the either Aqua or real varnish removers.

I envision a quite day on the mooring when I don't feel like doing much. With all the other stuff to do (to include sailing!) I never seem to get around to it but I will.

I'll be interested if anyone else comes up with something that really works.

Dick

[Zeida]

For old tape marks get the 3M Adhesive Removal. Works great doing just that and no harm to gelcoat.

[henry hey]

You folks have me all excited to try some stuff. I am going to go (initially) with the Citristrip that Carter Brey recommended to me a while back. I bought it at home depot and as he showed me on the Sabre sailing board, people evidentally use it on gelcoat with no harm done.

I will take before and after photos for research purposes and post them up here.

-henry

[Derek Matheson]

Suggest a product called Un-Du from a company of the same name. It is very aggressive in removing acrylic and rubber based adhesive residue. e.g. from old duct tape. It's also highly flammable, being mostly heptane.

[rtbates]

Island Girl has a product that they claim will remove cured 5200!

[Bob Condon]

The adhesive will be penetrated within a matter of hours. We had some issues with cetol on the fiberglass because Cetol ate the adhesive and then went under the edge of the tape... not too bad but the cetol is not going anywhere soon...