Removing Adhesive Residue from Aluminum

[caribmike]

We often put new vinyl on old aluminum flat panel signs. We strip off the old vinyl and try to remove as much residue as possible.

But, on a large aluminum sign, it can take hours to remove.

What do you guys use to get rid of the old adhesive from signs like this?

 

[ikarasu]

.081 aluminum costs us $2 a sqft. So a 24 x 24 sign for instance, would cost us $8.

To remove the vinyl and adhesive on that would cost a heck of a lot more than $8...


If you don't do aluminum in house though, try rapid remover. It removes adhesive pretty good - or if the face isn't in too bad of shape, sheet over top of it.

 

[DL Signs]

Regular Iso is slow, Rapid Remover is a lot quicker. If it's really heavy or hardened adhesive residue on raw aluminum you can experiment with harsher stuff like denatured alcohol solvent or acetone, they're cheap, cut adhesive fast, and evaporate quick. Wet it, let soak for a minute and use a scraper followed by another cleaning. But yeah, if it's bad you gotta figure your time against just replacing the panel, if you charge per hour at shop rate for removal, it may be cheaper to replace, if you're not charging them, you're losing money.

 

[Stacey K]

What Ikarasu said. Much easier to go over it if you can but the rapid remover works good. Have you tried the Zapper wheel or 3M remover wheel?

 

[pixel8d]

I've struggled using denatured alcohol and paper towels - until I figured out that denatured alcohol with a squeegee or plastic razor blade works but better. Paper towels and rags just move the adhesive goop around, but a plastic scraper lets you accumulate it into piles of gel, which are easily cleaned off.

 

[James Burke]

Some solvents cause the adhesive to polymerize (congeal).

Instead of dissolving, the adhesive literally loosens from the surface and forms large clusters of goo that literally fall off.

JB

 

[johnnysigns]

Mineral spirits to soften the adhesive. Plastic single edge razor in a good holder to scrape. Denatured alcohol to remove any lingering mineral spirits.

 

[visual800]

rapid remover works great for me BUT I would just buy another sheet of aluminum

 

[SightLine]

It will give you cancer if you live in California but Xylol (Xylene) is incredibly effective on adhesive. Have used hundreds of gallons of it over the years - can get it at most Lowes, Home Depot, paint stores, etc. Also an excellent degreaser. The odor is strong though so only use in a well ventilated place and do not get it on plastics or polyester paints (like on prefinished aluminum).

 

[MikePro]

raw aluminum? or do you need to protect the painted finish beneath?
raw: HUGE fan of wetting rags with paint thinner/acetone and leave covered on the surface for 5-10min, then scrape off in sheets/gobs of adhesive then worry about just wiping down everything in a second-step.
painted: same process, but with rapid remover sprayed onto sections of the surface at a time and cover with rag(s). allow 5-10 for the rapidremover to swell-up the adhesive and then scrap with PLASTIC scraper.

edited to add: if its lettering removed onsite, I'll actually begin by using duct tape to dab-at the adhesive and it will actually pluck-out chunks of it. then use rapid remover to deal with the rest left behind.

 

[Geneva Olson]

goo gone, a heat gun and a scraper? We recently had a vehicle with cracked wrap all over. It cost just as much to remove the wrap as it did to install the new wrap.

 

[Gino]

About 3 weeks ago we removed partial wraps and some die-cut vinyl from 2 vans we did back in 2012. I gave the guy an estimate, but told him these vinyls are made to go on and stay on. We will charge by the time it takes us. It took almost double our time and he paid it. We used heat, then went back with rapid remover then, with chislers and orange plastic razor blades removed the adhesive. It looked like those trucks were covered in boogies. I hate touching those little boogers. ewwwww.

 

[gnubler]

After my recent experience removing factory decals on a horse trailer I'm definitely steering away from doing removals, period. Frickin' nightmare.

I asked in another thread, but is there something about factory-installed decals that makes them more difficult to remove? The trailer was only 2 years old and the graphics were in good shape. I figured they'd peel right off with heat. Six hours later, I realized how very wrong I was.

Those boogies end up all over everything...smeared on the heat gun, the cord, spray bottles, etc. Ugh.

 

[unmateria]

I use to replace full sign. If not possible, just use universal solvent, let it wet during 10 minutes, put some soap to dont hurt the surface and use a clean spatula. That will let a more or less clean surface, but sticky. Then take isopropil alcohol, wet it some minutes and use a clean rag to leave it perfectly clean.

If the old vynils are no so old, the best trick is just heat everything and retire the old vynil slowly using like a 170 angle to remove. Never 90 or less.. If you run too much, the adhesive will keep in the alluminium. If you do correctly, ALL adhesive will go with the vynil

 

[unmateria]

Ah, and if the old vynil is perfect, just use a gray back vynil over it.

 

[gnubler]

Can anyone expand on the gray-backed vs white-backed adhesive vinyl?
The 3M brands I use have the gray back and are far easier to remove, in my experience.

 

[signheremd]

Gray Adhesive is so the vinyl can cover over without showing what is behind. It is not perfect, the raised sections will show there is something in "x" shape, but none of the background color bleeds through. Wrap vinyls use a gray backer and we all know such vinyl removes pretty well and usually cleanly. I don't know the chemistry differences

 

[Geneva Olson]

I have a customer (realtor) who likes to cut costs. (i know. they all do). This one likes to bring me his old acm boards. He starts out with 4'x8' boards and then eventually just cuts them down until he cant make a sign out of them anymore. He brought me a 4x8 sign that I had made a few years ago and he had cut it down to a weird size (4 ft x 66"). I printed the sign and and mounted it. I used arlon with a white adhesive..you can see that realtors photo straight through the white space in the new sign.

 

[Geneva Olson]

We often put new vinyl on old aluminum flat panel signs. We strip off the old vinyl and try to remove as much residue as possible.

But, on a large aluminum sign, it can take hours to remove.

What do you guys use to get rid of the old adhesive from signs like this?

hey...have you tried goo gone on it and a torch? we did it and it turned the vinyl all gummy. i'm not sure what kind of fumes we inhaled when we did it. but we had a fire going for a little bit. it was easy to remove the cracked vinyl.

 

[gnubler]

hey...have you tried goo gone on it and a torch? we did it and it turned the vinyl all gummy. i'm not sure what kind of fumes we inhaled when we did it. but we had a fire going for a little bit. it was easy to remove the cracked vinyl.

That's what I encountered with the nightmare trailer removal. The vinyl just melted and it smelled like a burning tire plant. Luckily we were outside.