Remove dried adhesive from a chassis?

[Dave145]

Just bought this chassis off ebay a few weeks ago and finally got around to inspecting it and cleaning it. It appears to be an early edition chassis (Cadillac version?) with the light gold anodizing and the "A" stamp. It also came with two black battery cups and the black nerf bars (they should be white). The chassis appears to be in decent condition with low time on it, but it has some extra holes drilled in it in various places . But aside from that, I see there is old dried adhesive from a tape strip on the bottom of the chassis at one point and a large (about the size of a quarter) adhesive spot in front of where the bulkhead would be. There are also stickers on wither side of the chassis that I'd like to remove. And finally there also are some small brown spots in various places that can't be wiped off so I'd assume it's rust of some kind. Two questions here:

- How can I remove the rust spots/ adhesive spots from the chassis without scratching it?
- How can I remove the black dye from the nerf bars (they are black but should be white)?

[RC104ever]

I've had really good luck with your average home kitchen / bathroom cleaners. Something like Comet, Ajax in a powder works well. Another thing to try if you can find it is 'goo gone' which works well too. I don't know if you can find this at a Home Depot or not but 'CLR' also works great at removing things without damaging them. Try first on a small spot to be sure.

[RedScampi]

For the adhesives use Goo-Gone. You can get it at Walmart, Home Depot etc. It works realy well. The "rust" must be something else since the chassis is made of non-ferrous metal. Try soaking the whole thing in soapy water to see if anything loosens up.

[jwscab]

I usually use three things that work in this order:

first wash with dish detergent thoroughly. You should be doing this anyway starting a fresh build.

on stickers and double sided tape, I use wd40, applied liberally and rub into the stickers and tape, it take some working, but you can usually get it started and the wd prevents it from re-sticking. after this is complete, another quick soap and rinse to remove the oil.

finally, for some stains, crazy glue, some other adhesives, and stickers that aren't dissolved by wd40, use acetone liberally in an open area, usually drip on, or wet a paper towel and keep applying until things start to loosen. Usually follow with a quick rinse, maybe even soap again.

anodizing is unaffected by these processes/solvents. they also work well for carbon fiber too. If there is anything remaining on a carbon fiber chassis, you are left with scratching and poking with an xacto or something similar.

*Just on aluminum tub, not carbon fiber* you can use some gentle heating to usually pop off epoxies and other really hard glues, like a hair dryer, or even an oven, but keep the temps to 250F or so.

[tommy2c]

For stickers/adhesive I use Goo Gone. Spray on, let it soak a few minutes and wipe off. I've found that usually there's still some tackiness remaining but a quick second spray and wipe gets it off.

[jwscab]

oh yeah, I forgot to mention, goo gone/wd40/mineral oil(like 3n1) are all pretty much the same thing, all work equally about the same, so use whichever one you have.

[PTModIT]

I use RONSONOL lighter fluid on the decals and doublesided tape.Your stuck with the black nerf bars.The dye can't be removed.

[Charlie don't surf]

Nitro fuel too-

[Mikeyboy]

I've had good luck with the Goo Gone too and it smells nice!

[tudor39]

I second the lighter fluid. It works well at times, usually all of the solvents seem to make the adhesive kinda gooey or greasy but enough to loosen it and wipe it off with a few applications. what happens to the dye with bleach? also saw people talking about hydrogen peroxide out in the sunlight or a good uv light source? don't know if either would do much to the dye

[scr8p]

Belt sander

[Dave145]

I've used bleach on those parts... It kind of worked, but now the parts are waiting to be wet sanded because the bleach made them get a little "fuzzy". Peroxide I've never gotten to work on anything. This is my method for whitening yellowed parts: rinse woth water, soak in ammonia for 1 day, soak in water for one day, soak back in ammonia for one day, soak again in water for one day, soak in peroxide for 1 day, followed by water for a day, then bleach for two days after, then water for another two days. Wet sand as needed in event of fuzzy parts... I've always gotten it to work on yellow parts, but ive never tried it on black parts before. Just a side question: are those nerf bars in the pictures rare by any means? I bought the chassis thinking they were.

[RC10resto]

you should really stay away from that Bleach

[Charlie don't surf]

Belt sander

No smiley, no wink, no LOL. Just......... Belt sander















Money!

[scr8p]

Nevermind, I just saw the part where it needs to be removed without scratches.