I'm sick and damn tired...

DanoND

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...of getting adhesive goo off shit so I can replace artwork. There are few things more depressing than waiting for "goo remover of choice" to work, only to find that you still need to scrape, scrub and rub that shit off for the next 2 hours if you want it done right.

Sigh.

Working on my Star Wars upright marquee at the moment. Looking forward to seeing how to get the sticky stuff off the curved edges without messing them up.
 
I have a better way, but it's more caustic: wear gloves, a cheap paint breather over your mouth/nose and do it in a disposable tin turkey pan.

The key is to use Laquer Thinner. If you can get the thinner in contact with the underneath of the CPO (or whatever is glued on), when the thinner comes into contact with the glue it turns into a snot like glob but the overlay peels right off like skin off a 3rd degree burn. Then, simply use a steel wool pad and more laquer to remove all the remaining residue, it'll come off instant as well. It's a pretty harsh method, but it gets the job done in minutes. No waiting involved.

I hold the CP at an angle down into the pan, then I just pour laquer thinner down onto the surface where I've pealed back the corner exposing the underside....just keep pouring into the seam as the CPO peels right off.

Again, the stuff is caustic, so keep the kids away, keep ventilation (do it outside), and dispose of appropriately.






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Yeah, I still have auction stickers on marquees because I don't won't to go through the effort of cleaning them off. Then you can see left over scrapes on marquees of auctions past left by previous owners.

Careful in using goo remover. It will eat marquee plastic if left on too long.

Also don't use rags to soak up the goo, it seams to just carpet the thing with cotton balls.

Of course also don't bother sanding goo off metal control panels, it just moves the goo around the metal but never comes off.

Feel your pain.
 
Yeah I've got the process down so it works, but it still is my least favorite thing to do on arcades. I'm fine with building, bondo, painting, wiring, etc, but that freakin' goo is the pits.
 
ya I just started restoring and the goo stuff sucks ass! I removed a really bad cracked gauntlet 2 cpo to get to a really nice gauntlet 1 cpo. All I have is about 50% of it off now. I do it periodically so I don't get pissed off causes nothing seems to work good.Tried many things. I've been rubbing the glue off and It's comming off the best. I just don't want to ruin the original cpo!
 
Check out the past threads on here about Harbor Freight's electric heated scraper. I've got one and it works great and if you're going to use it a lot, check out the idea of using a Radio Shack heavy solder sucker iron with the attachment.

RE: Atari CPO's, those seem to have the strongest adhesives. I can take off a Midway CPO no problem, but something like Centipede is an afternoon project. Of course that was before I started using a heated scraper.
 
Natural approach to this if metal CP. Fill "item of choice that fares well to heat and fits CP" with water. Either put it on your stove or your BBQ and crank up the heat. No joke. No need to kill our mother earth when she's already given us the tools to make it happen.
 
Check out the past threads on here about Harbor Freight's electric heated scraper. I've got one and it works great and if you're going to use it a lot, check out the idea of using a Radio Shack heavy solder sucker iron with the attachment.

RE: Atari CPO's, those seem to have the strongest adhesives. I can take off a Midway CPO no problem, but something like Centipede is an afternoon project. Of course that was before I started using a heated scraper.

do you risk the chance of scratching or gouging the cpo with the adhesive on top?
 
I swear by this stuff for adhesive removal (and cleaning):

http://www.pinrestore.com/Supplies.html

(Orange Power).

Strong stuff. To give you an idea - i just replaced my SW Upright Marquee. Had adhesive remains on the wood and glass of course. Sprayed this on liberally (as I am not worried about removing paint and if i do, i will spray paint it black anyway - would not be so liberal on painted surfaces). Within 5 minutes, take a cloth and scrub - all the snot groups up / comes off. Needed to do it one more time followed by a windex wash. Total time was less than 20 minutes.

I use it on Mylar overlays for pinball machines - provided the game is post 92 / Diamond plate.

Hope it helps.

And, i dont wear a mask (although i should!).
 
i have a solvent tank, so what ill do is stick my cp in there for a few days prior to when i want to paint it and by then the cpo will fall off
 
Goo

I recently re-did all of the graphics on my camper and was faced with the daunting task of removing the old decals first. I used a heat gun and clean putty knife and slowly heated the sticker while working in the knife underneath the decal and appying pressue to remove it. This was over a Gel-Coated Fiberglass and I was surprised at how little scratching resulted from the process. The key was to go slow and to be patient.

There was still a bit of residual adhesive remaining after the decals are removed for which I used 3M adhesive remover and a clear rag ($30 / gallon).

I found that raw, exposed adhesive cleans up with this technique as well. The key are heat and scrape.

I can't say that the above will be effecive or safe for your case, but I can say that mine was a huge job and in time I became very good at the sticker and adhesive removal.

I've tried Goo-Gone, Goof-Off and some of the stuff from the home center and have not had much luck with it.
 
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