"Glue" on sails. Get it off...

[Guest]

\"Glue\" on sails. Get it off...

I am looking to remove an old racing number from my main. It looks like it will be easy to simply peel the number off, however, there seems to be a sticky compund left behind. I guess the numbers were either self-adhesive or iron-on.

Anybody got any ideas to removing this sticky gunge, before it collects enough dust to redisplay the numbers, in brown rather than black...

Cheers

Wayne

 

[kioo]

Re: \"Glue\" on sails. Get it off...

Thanks,Wayne for your generous response regarding boat-share. Hope this tip passed to me by a sailmaker helps with the sail prob. Wet the sail with solvent from the reverse side so that the bulk of the adhesive comes away with the number. It worked a treat for me, but select your solvent carefully.

Regards, Bill.

 

[AndrewB]

Re: \"Glue\" on sails. Get it off...

I used International Thinners no 7 for this (mainly acetone I think). It was certainly effective but I was a bit worried that it would dissolve the sail as well, so scrubbed it off quickly with lots of soapy water. No obvious problems, just faint yellow marks where the numbers were, but then it was an old sail.

 

[david_e]

Re: \"Glue\" on sails. Get it off...

Acetone is what we used to use on our dacron windsurf sails before they went hi-tech.

 

[ChrisJ]

Re: \"Glue\" on sails. Get it off...

Also - sprinkle some Talcum powder over the sail where the number used to be. This sticks very well to any remaining glue, and leaves a nice white "dirt", rather than waiting for the dirty grey dust to settle.

Chris

 

[Guest]

Re: \"Glue\" on sails. Get it off...

Thanks Everybody. Got a few things to try.

Regards

Wayne