Nintendo's Adhesive Supplier

[wweumina]

I've stripped some CPOs in my time. My old approach was just an overnight soak in acetone and then a scrape and sand the next day. If things got a bit sticky, then a heat gun along with the scraping.

Maybe I've been lucky in the past, but having just done a Playchoice 10 dual screen CPO, I have to say that whomever procured adhesive for Nintendo went above and beyond in their duty. That stuff does not want to come off. Hats off to you sir.

Steps I ended up taking (over 3 days):
- soak in acetone (removed some of the outer shiny part of the overlay)
- spray with goo gone and scrape (some of the overlay off)
- spray again with goo gone and scrape again (more of the overlay off)
- angle grinder with a stripping disc (gummed up the disc pretty quickly but finally started to see some metal)
- back to goo gone and a wire brush (now trying to get through the adhesive under the overlay)
- heat gun and scraper (now seeing most of the metal)
- final run over with the angle grinder and stripping disc (most of the rust and adhesive gone)

It's now soaking in some rust remover prior to a final sand and paint tomorrow.

Does anyone have any tips on doing this better? I actually have another one waiting but I'm tempted to put it off until I forget this experience.

It was in pretty bad shape. The attached pictures shows the bottom of the CP to give you an idea on the rust. And then the stripped panel.

 

[BHRuler]

I had to angle grinder mine off too, wasnt as bad as yours rust wise but rusty.

 

[nulogix]

Huh. Wish they would put some of that adhesive on the cabaret control panel overlay for Galaga.

 

[anoon]

I went through something similar with my Joust restoration.

As you can see from that post, what worked wonders was an adhesive eraser wheel

I happened upon a post by @braedel that suggested an adhesive remover wheel.
I had never heard of such a thing, but I ran out to the local auto parts store, and $50 later, slapped it in my drill.

Under 10 minutes with the wheel, the control panel was completely clean. Amazing.

 

[rdudding]

Remove the CPO with a heat gun and a putty knife. Remove any remaining adhesive with Citra-Strip and the same putty knife.
Easy-peasy

 

[behrmr]

Remove the CPO with a heat gun and a putty knife. Remove any remaining adhesive with Citra-Strip and the same putty knife.
Easy-peasy

Yep. one or two applications of Citrustrip will get 99% of the adhesive with literally zero effort. I then use RapidRemover to remove any remaining. It comes off with a wipe of a paper towel. This has worked for me on every metal CP I've ever stripped including Nintendo PC CP's.

 

[wweumina]

And so today I tackled the second PC-10 CP and it peels off (at least the top layer) with just my finger nail. Not all PC-10 CPOs were created equally, or else the rust on the first one made it a bear. Do the Citristrip people use the gel or the paste?