salvaging rear window surrounds (1 Viewer)

[John Young]

I've got a problem. Some of the window surrounds, particularly on the windows for the barn doors of my 80's are really hard to get. I am about to receive a left window but the right, larger window has delivery times measured in weeks and weeks. I'm able to buy complete doors for about 100 USD and I've been able to get the window surrounds out intact, but they have some kind of sealant that remains sticky 30 years after it was applied at the factory. I'm struggling to remove it and thought I would post here to see if anyone has any great ideas.

Here is a close up:

First thing I tried was some German stuff:

essentially no effect:

Then I tried pure grain alcohol:

Waste of decent alcohol.

 

[John Young]

I've had the most success with white spirtis

But it is very slow going and you have to pry up the lips and I don't think I am removing everything.

Currently I am trying soaking a corner of the surround in white spirits:

I'm a bit afraid to use acetone for fear of damaging the rubber.

Does anyone out there have any experience with this?

 

[BILT4ME]

Have you tried WD-40? Seriously.

I have used it frequently as an adhesive remover.

May try a spot clean with carburetor cleaner, but that may eat the rubber too.

 

[John Young]

Have you tried WD-40? Seriously.

I have used it frequently as an adhesive remover.

May try a spot clean with carburetor cleaner, but that may eat the rubber too.

No I have not, but I will 'give it a shot'. Thanks!

 

[John Young]

Well soaking in white spirits definitely had a detrimental effect:

I don't happen to have any WE40 on hand but I will get some tomorrow.

 

[Malleus]

Well soaking in white spirits definitely had a detrimental effect:
View attachment 3064129
I don't happen to have any WE40 on hand but I will get some tomorrow.

I wish I had seen this sooner. What you folks call white, or methylated, spirits, we call denatured alcohol. It eats rubber.

 

[ppc]

Do not use any petroleum or alcoholic based cleaner. I would use a citrus based cleaner like De-Solv-it

Amazon product ASIN B000MIRIC8

 

[John Young]

Do not use any petroleum or alcoholic based cleaner. I would use a citrus based cleaner like De-Solv-it

Amazon product ASIN B000MIRIC8

Thanks; just bought this; looks promising....

 

[Njck22]

Why not just leave it if still pliable? Apply a bead of 3m super weatherstrip adhesive on top of it. seems anything strong enough to dissolve it will also be detrimental to the rubber, that being said, naphtha is my go to solvent for removing butyl rubber tape. (Active ingredient in wd40, along with mineral oil).

 

[John Young]

Why not just leave it if still pliable? Apply a bead of 3m super weatherstrip adhesive on top of it. seems anything strong enough to dissolve it will also be detrimental to the rubber, that being said, naphtha is my go to solvent for removing butyl rubber tape. (Active ingredient in wd40, along with mineral oil).

It is s bit too lumpy with the old stuff on there. I will try WD40 too

 

[fjbj40]

In aviation we remove old adhesive that bonds the rubber de-ice boots to the leading edges with MEK or tolulene.
It softens the glue for removal.

 

[John Young]

In aviation we remove old adhesive that bonds the rubber de-ice boots to the leading edges with MEK or tolulene.
It softens the glue for removal.

Thank you FJBJ. A million years ago I worked in a propmaking department in a motion picture studio and we used MEK quite a lot. I asked the local wholesale paint shop about MEK yesterday and he had no idea what Methyl Ethel Keytone was. That is really good to know about aviation de-icing boots. The adhesive you guys use for that has got to be killer. I will try the half-dozen alternative I have on hand as of tomorrow and see if any of them work on these:

The rubber actually looks really good on these old doors from the salvage yard. Paid about 150 USD for the pair of them.

 

[fjbj40]

Thank you FJBJ. A million years ago I worked in a propmaking department in a motion picture studio and we used MEK quite a lot. I asked the local wholesale paint shop about MEK yesterday and he had no idea what Methyl Ethel Keytone was. That is really good to know about aviation de-icing boots. The adhesive you guys use for that has got to be killer. I will try the half-dozen alternative I have on hand as of tomorrow and see if any of them work on these:
View attachment 3065113
View attachment 3065115
The rubber actually looks really good on these old doors from the salvage yard. Paid about 150 USD for the pair of them.

Tolulene will also work

Toluene - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[John Young]

Well the citrus cleaner did nothing at all. Turned out, which won't be a surprise to at least some of you, lowly old WD40 worked the best to loosen and dissolve the sealant without damaging the rubber. I used plastic trim tools draped over rags to clean out the groves. Really messy and time consuming. But the results were very good.

Another thing: after cleaning with WD40 the rubber was sticky. Residue of the gunk I think. I used dish soap and hot water to do a final cleaning. That made a big difference.

Here is the right rear (large) barn door surround and two solid pane 3rd window surrounds after getting the gunk cleaned out, and a liberal application of silicone spray.

Don't worry, I will wipe it down before installation.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I wish I had seen this sooner. What you folks call white, or methylated, spirits, we call denatured alcohol. It eats rubber.

White spirits is not alcohol.

It's a liquid hydrocarbon. I think similar to toluene.

It's whatever dry cleaning solution is.

 

[mudgudgeon]

asked the local wholesale paint shop about MEK yesterday and he had no idea what Methyl Ethel Keytone was.

Common solvent used as a primer on PVC plumbing pipes before gluing joints together.

 

[tlc1995]

Try soaking it in oxi clean. Add a couple three scoops of it into a plastic barrel with hot water and let it soak overnight. Not saying it will work but have had success cleaning off plenty of adhesives and caulk from all kinds of things.
Or throw in Your seatbelt webbing for a hour and have factory new/ clean seatbelts that are soft and help retract much better. Just make sure to give a good rinse and hang out to dry before installing