Old paper covering on acrylic

[Mr. Limpet]

Hi All,
Well, since I am painting the back of the tank, I thought I should paint the bottom, even though this particular tank is going to have a thin layer of rocks/gravel.
The tank is 20+ years old and has what is left of the original protective paper covering on the bottom. The adhesive has completely dried up and it is a mess. We tried Goo Gone, but not much success. Rubbing alcohol had the same effect. We are soaking the bottom overnight with wet towels, which will make the paper easier to take off, but has anyone used something to take the old dried up adhesive off?
I will start with some milder solvents tomorrow, but I don't want to melt the acrylic.
Any ideas out there? Paul.

[jeep]

If you're going to paint it anyway, then I would just sand it off using 600 grit paper. The new paint should fill the scratch marks to where you can't see them.

If you want to make sure there are no scratches, work your way up to 2000+ grit paper, using water as a lubricant. You can find sand paper this fine in an automotive paint shop.

Even if you can see a few scratches, it may be a unique pattern for a tank. ???

[Mr. Limpet]

Brian, that just might be the easiest. I soaked it overnight with wet towels, time to go outside and see what I can do. Paul.

[NTORIUSB]

You can polish out the scratches by using a torch... But be careful not to apply too much heat!!! Warpage... You'd be suprised how fast the scratches disappear with a quick swipe of a soldering torch...use a big tip to disperse the flame more, so you don't consintrat the flame into one small spot...

Good luck...

B ::)

[Mr. Limpet]

B,
I'm a pretty brave guy, but that sounds a little scary. I've seen people flame polish an edge, but not a surface. I ended up using razor blades with a holder to get the paper off. This put some pretty good scratches in. Then I wet asnded with 600 paper, which took out a lot of the scratches, but left everything hazed. I will try a practice piece that has been sanded and see what the paint looks like. Unfortunately, the only practice pieces I have are polycarbonate, so the flaming is out for the practice piecs. I could try the cover though. Paul.

[NTORIUSB]

I mak alot of stuff at work out of polycarb...(Lexan) and I flame polish out all the small scratches on surfaces... But I would definetly give myself some practice!!!! Good luck!!!!

;D

[Mr. Limpet]

Ntorious,
I'll give it a try on a practice sheet.
You know the other method of polishing a lot of plastics is a dip in the vapors of an MethylEthylKeytone (MEK) bath. We used to do this with small plastic parts at work with a few hundred ml's of MEK in a beaker on a hot plate. Heat it up just right, so the vapors stay in the beaker and just dip the part in the vapors. Worked wonders, but highly flammable not to mention carcinogeus. And really bad for your liver. The tank is too big for that anyway. Alsao, it depends on the plastic, some crack and craze with this method. Thanks for the tip, Paul.