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Removing really old sheet metal protective film

Zazoos

Well Known Member
So my wings were built in the 90's and the sheet metal was wrapped with some white film. I am struggling with removing some of it. I have tried MEK, Acetone, Brake Clean, Goo Gone, Kerosene, Shopline JT501, and Aircraft Paint Remover. Nothing touches this stuff. I even took a 3m Scotch Brite Pad to remove the white backing to expose the adhesive layer and the solvents still will not remove it.

I can Scotch Brite it all the way but would prefer a chemical method.

Suggestions?

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Thank you,
 
Yes, I have tried heating with a heat gun to approx 180 degrees.

I let Aircraft paint remover sit on it for 30 minutes. Wiped right off without phasing the adhesive film.
 
Not a RV builder (yet,) but am A&P. I use Speedy 500 on breaking up adhesives, it's like a more robust Goo-Gone. Yours may have aged to the point where it's more resistant to chemicals, but I'd bet if you soaked a rag with Speedy and let is sit (while adding more as it dries) you'll break it up eventually.
 
I had a similar situation with a plexiglass canopy that had plastic film and dried white masking tape on it. Had been there for years and years. I tried all the usual things and then hit upon this:

First clean all the dust and dirt off the film. Then lay some 2" Blue masking tape over it (or duct tape if the blue isn't aggressive enough ) and press it down really, really well. All over. Pushing any potential air pockets out. Leave a "tail" on one end that you can get a firm hold of and then RIP THE TAPE off really quickly and the old film should come off too. It worked great for me. Good luck.
 
Has anyone tried a "decal eraser" from ACS for this?

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This is what I would try. I use mine an anything stickyish. Just used it on my rover to get the "Range" off to fix a dent. Although mine is solid not stepped as shown.
 
I had exactly this situation with the white vinyl and also some blue that had baked hard after a fews years of sun through the workshop window. After no luck with MEK I left some of that heavy duty yellow paint stripper on it for 24hrs. It softened it just a little, not much but enough to be able to scrape much of the plastic off with a perspex scraper. It was heavy going and took a lot of scrubbing afterwards with scotchbrite to get the remnants off and remove scraper scuffs and scratches. I seem to remember orbi sanding as well.

After that the whole plane was scotchbrited thoroughly during paint prep.

So unfortunately it may be a pretty manual process for you unless some of the other posters' suggestions bear fruit, best of luck.

Next time the plastic will be coming off out of the box!
 
This is odd. What brand of remover? You want one based on dichloromethane, like this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Jasco-1-Qt-Premium-Paint-and-Epoxy-Remover-QJBP00202/202247418.
Wear protection.

Here are some more solvent ideas:
https://www.plasticsintl.com/chemical-resistance-chart

Thanks for all the help. The JASCO Paint and Epoxy Remover works like a charm. I let it sit on there for about 12 hours and then scrape with a piece of plexiglass. Doesn't even take much scraping to get it off.
 
Thanks for the suggestion Bill although I am looking to preserve the paint that is still serviceable under the dried decal so I think the paint stripper will remove the old plastic protector AND the underlying paint. Possibly some of the other products in your linked discussion may work. I will make a list of them from it and check them out.

WD40 helps. That is about the only thing that stuff is good for.
 
I find the following works well:
Lightly abrade the surface of the white plastic with course sandpaper, apply liberal amounts of Aircraft Paint Stripper, brush it on, cover the area with "cling wrap" or a similar product to prevent evaporation, use a plastic "Bondo" spreader
to remove the residue, you might have to hit a few of the difficult places again.
I have used this method with good results.
Dick
 
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