removing vinyl top glue

[marko]

whats the best stuff to use to remove vinyl top residue from the exposed roof ?
(still have to remove edge trim)
thanks
mark

 

[73Coupe]

At 50 years old that dried up glue will be hard to tackle with just chemicals. You will have to use mechanical means, such as a scraper, sander, then follow with adhesive cleaner, if it even works then.

My go-to solvent for adhesive residue is 3M Adhesive Cleaner. Stronger solvents would be lacquer thinner, acetone, xylene, but those have little workable time since they're so hot.

Methylene chloride (paint stripper) might be another option?

 

[MacsGarage]

I'd never dealt with 50 year old vinyl top adhesive before, but when I had to remove a wrap from a 80s Dodge van, a heat gun made the leftover adhesive sticky enough to scrape off, just can't get too close otherwise you'd warp the painted surface underneath it (if that is something you're overly concerned about). Other than that I'd go with 73Coupe's recommendation of that 3M Adhesive Cleaner. Maybe that tandem with a heat gun might get you somewhere faster. Food for thought

 

[cbarge]

O've done this a couple times..
I used an orbial sander with 320 and 180 grit.
You are bound to hit surface rust since the factory barely covered tge roof with primer.
Once all smoothed out use reducer or paint thinner to wipe it down.
I always remove all trim and spray the prepped roof with epoxy primer.
After 24 hrs, scuff the expixyvwith 80 grit so the new vinyl glue can bite ibto it.
Hope this helps.
Any ?? Pm me.

 

[marko]

heres the weird thing, the adhesive is still abit gummy............ the car was kept in a shed when not being used, the vinyl is brittle and has fine cracks in places it still came off in mainly 1 piece

 

[detmatt]

This is the very same contact adhesive used on laminate countertops of the era and it dissolves with lacquer thinner.