Removing glue from the side of a tire

[Jim85IROC]

I have a couple Pro 90 tires that I boiled to remove from the wheels (BTW, don't boil Losi wheels with the clear inserts if you want to save them - the clear inserts curl up like crazy in the boiling water), but I still have a ton of glue residue on the tires. One of them has a glue trail down the side of the tire and all the way through the tread. I have some CA Glue remover, and I applied some of that and tried to wipe the glue away, but it didn't work. What it did manage to do was to turn the CA glue white, so now it's 10x more noticeable than before I started.

Is acetone the way to get the glue off the tire? I know that folks soak tires in acetone to get them to separate from the wheel, but will it dissolve CA well enough to fully remove it from the tread?

[jwscab]

yep, acetone will work great. if you are worried about the tire, don't do a whole soak, but rather dunk or brush on the acetone and wipe away the residue. it will take longer this way, and get gummy and messy at first, but eventually it will be removed. I have seen some tires get a little soft/gummy in acetone, that seemed to be ok after the acetone eventually evaporated, so just use caution.

[Jim85IROC]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Frankly, these tires could benefit from being a little softer anyway.

[fakiee]

Check this out http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=36724&start=30

[Jim85IROC]

Interesting. Unfortunately, I had nowhere near that kind of result with the debonder, nor with the acetone.

Both left me with the same result: the glue is now chalky white, which makes it look even worse than when I started.

Next step is to try soaking the bad sections in the stuff instead of wiping it on and watching it almost immediately evaporate.

[RC10resto]

Fully soak them in Acetone, I use a metal paint can.

[jwscab]

yep, you still may have residue present. you want to soak it really well and flush away the glue, as soon as the acetone evaporates, the glue stays where it was puddled.

[Jim85IROC]

Last night I tried soaking the tires in a coffee can of acetone, and it seems to be working. 15 minutes followed by a wipe with a stiff brush seems to be taking it off. I need to let a couple stubborn spots soak longer now.

[Jim85IROC]

I just wanted to post an update for the benefit of future generations.

I was never able to fully remove the glue from this particular set of tires with a 30 minute - 1hr bath. With other tires, 20-30 minutes has been more than enough to soften the glue enough to wipe it completely away.

Next step is an 8 hour bath. If that doesn't work, I'm going to assume that whatever glue was used has etched the tire, which frankly, is what it looks like.

[jwscab]

I had some really bad tires that were painted. I left them sit ovenight in acetone, and even at that point, I had to soak again, and wipe down with fresh acetone to get it all off. I only ever got like 99% of it removed, so you may have to settle with less than perfection. such is the life of a used part. the tires I had actually swelled a little, but then shrunk down after the acetone evaporated.

[Jim85IROC]

Fortunately was able to secure a more appropriate (and much better condition) set of tires for this project already, so at this point, this is purely for educational purposes.