• Untitled Document

    Join us on April 26th, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    April Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Dissolving Sealants

E

edokarura

Member II
The chain locker on my '91 Ericson 34 is a fiberglass pan fit through a hole cut into the deck and held there with screws and sealant.


I'm trying to remove it but scraping the old sealant from under the joint is taking forever and I'm damaging the gelcoat in the process.


Can anyone suggest a solvent to dissolve the sealant?


I'm concerned that if I use the wrong stuff it will leave a residue which will interfere with the new sealant adhering.


Thanks in advance!
 
L

leighton

Member I
I just removed the traveler in the cockpit which I had attached with 5200 about ten years ago. I used MarineFormula and it made it quite easy, and did not leave a mark or any residue that wouldn't clean up with soap & water.
The product literature says that it will remove other adhesives less tenacious than 5200.

http://www.marineformula.com/index.html
 
E

Emerald

Moderator
another thing to try is heating it up with a hair dryer and preferably a plastic scraper (think windshield scraper even) - many sealants really don't like heat :0
 
Christian Williams

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I've used a product called Motsenberger Lift-off (spelling approximate) which is suppposed to break the molecular bond. Sometiems it works, sometimes it doesn;t . There's a product called Anti-Bond which West marine has, or used to. You could try them. And acetone. And PB Blaster and Goo-gone and motor oil and whatever else is under the kitchen sink. And a heat gun (separate from the volatiles, obviously ). Problem is we often don't know what the adhesive is, but it might not help if we did.

I wouldn't worry about residue, anything can be cleaned. About now I'd be resigned to the mechanical approach. I would hope not to destroy the pan, but I'd probably start getting medieval on it. Sharp chisel or invent a tool, drive it in with a hammer, use a prybar or if necessary a crowbar or dynamite.

Not being facetious. Force sometimes required. Often the part will give up suddenly when you get enough leverage on it and break its will.

If not, Sawzall.
 
Last edited:
L

lbertran

Member III
Debond

I just removed all the opening ports on my boat and used a spray called Debond. I had anticipated difficulty in getting the ports out since that was certainly the case when we replaced the fixed ports. But Debond worked very well and we got 6 ports removed and the openings cleaned up in a couple of hours. I don't know what the old caulk was but it's been hard to remove in the past. ordered the Debond online and will post the link if I find it. Good luck!
 
L

lbertran

Member III
Marine Formula

Turns out Debond is the company and the product is Marine Formula, already recommended by Tom Leighton above. You can find it at marineformula.com.
 
Last edited:
E

edokarura

Member II
lbertran said:
Turns out Debond is the company and the product is Marine Formula, already recommended by Tom Leighton above. You can find it at marineformula.com.
Click to expand...


Hallelujah and three cheers for Marine Formula from DeBond! Squirted it in, waited 15 minutes, squirted in some more, scraped a bit, and out she came! (With a little help from a mini pry-bar, of course!)

Many thanks for the help, folks!

Now, would anyone like to buy the rest of the can? It was so bloody expensive I'm sure it has a high re-sale value!
 
u079721

u079721

Contributing Partner
A word from you friendly neighborhood polymer chemist......

As sealants cure they typically undergo a process called crosslinking in reaction with oxygen or moisture in the air, forming chemical bonds in three dimensions - after which the material is never truly soluble in anything. So you can't really dissolve cured silicone or 5200. BUT, the cured sealant can swell if treated with the appropriate solvent. The process of swelling stretches the bonds that have formed to the surface as the material expands, breaking most of them, and making it easier to then scrap away the rest. So any cured sealant remover is just an optimum solvent to swell that type of cured sealant. You can usually tell just by smell what it is, but the last time I used some I recall thinking it just smelled like naptha or mineral spirits mixed with some ketones.

The flip side of this is that you have to be careful around cured sealants when using solvent, or this swelling will start where you don't want it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top