How To Remove Protective Film Off Cast Acrylic Hatches

[UNCIVILIZED]

What about using cold, like dry ice, along with a thumb nail. Since most adhesives have a Lot less stick when it's cold.

Or there's the outside possibility that after removing the bits of film the acrylic could need/be repolished. It's done to acrylic, & polycarbonate windows all of the time. Though I'm not sure if there are anti-scratch or anti-UV coatings on the hatch that this would destroy. Thoughts?

Worst case, swap out the acrylic/lexan.

[er9]

try peeling it the best you can in small chunks, soak a paper towel with kerosene, rub generously on any areas where you managed to peel up any of the film, let it sit a little bit and try to peel up some more (the edge of a freshly cut piece of plexi makes a good scraper, or a credit card). its a long painfull process. clean up kerosene with regular windex.

you may also try the same process with laquer thinner but with laquer thinner you have to be a little faster as it will mar the surface if left on too long.

if your lucky and its not too far gone this will work but you will almost certainly need to do a surface buff of the acrylic after cleaning off the film as it will have been dulled/scuffed from the sunbaking and the cleaning.

poly film and paper can bake on so badly it cant be removed except for sanding and re-polishing. if above method does not work it may need to be sanded, polished or replaced....sorry.

[kryg]

Heat gun application Outcome> I used heat gun today and it failed to remove the protective film on the flexible solar panels, I heated the area on the panels till it was too hot to touch, this was at a medium setting of an 1800 watt heat gun.

No damage was done to the solar panel, but no film was removed either. I was not prepared to crank up the heat gun setting as I risked destroying my solar panels. Regardless of the outcome, it was worth a try. Many thanks, everyone. Kryg SV. Skoiern IV

Originally Posted by kryg

I have the same problem, but in my case, I outsmarted myself, as I left the protective film on my flexible solar panels and now I have the same baked on film issues.

I plan to try the glass cleaner idea; I will let you know how it goes.

Many Thanks
Kryg, Skoiern IV

[s/v Jedi]

Why not try with a piece of ductape? I often use that to lift off old deteriorated coatings

I recently removed a couple of Velcro patches about 4"x2" each. All the glue stayed on the material surface, nothing came off with the Velcro. It took me dozens of patches of 6" long ductape but 99.9% of the glue came off. Then it was a simple matter of a cloth and some Goo-gone and good as new. Goo-gone does not damage any plastics that I have tried it on but it works best to remove a slight residue only

[pesarsten]

I wonder if a pressure washer would remove the remnants? I wouldn't think it could hurt the hatch.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Be sure that the hatch is Acrylic, & not Plexi, before using most of the above methods. As if it's the latter, at best you'll wind up scratching the s**t out of it, if not far worse. And be advised that some hatches come with various coatings on the acrylic, to aid with things such as UV resistance, scratch resistance, etc. Some of which can be fragile, chemically sensitive, or both. So talking to the hatch's manufacturer first might be advised.

[hellosailor]

Jedi was on the mark. Except, no need to waste duct tape. Use plain cheap clear "packing tape" and if that doesn't pull off the plastic, use a better grade (3M makes "stronger" tape, check the descriptions) of tape. You may need to apply tape all over as it may only pull up what it is stuck to. This problem indicates that the plastic was too old, or stored in too much heat for too long, before it was sent to you. FWIW a common problem with plexi places that buy too much stock and hold it in inventory for too long.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Be sure that the hatch is Acrylic, & not Plexi, before using most of the above methods. As if it's the latter, at best you'll wind up scratching the s**t out of it, if not far worse. And be advised that some hatches come with various coatings on the acrylic, to aid with things such as UV resistance, scratch resistance, etc. Some of which can be fragile, chemically sensitive, or both. So talking to the hatch's manufacturer first might be advised.

I think "acrylic" needs to be re[placed with "polycarbonate" there as plexiglass == acrylic ?

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Jedi was on the mark. Except, no need to waste duct tape. Use plain cheap clear "packing tape" and if that doesn't pull off the plastic, use a better grade (3M makes "stronger" tape, check the descriptions) of tape.

You have too much tape, you only need one tape: duct tape

[hellosailor]

For many years the premium "glastic" was Lexan MR-10, used on subway and railroad windows to make grafiti and key-scratch damage less. That's Lexan(R) Polycarbonate with a plastic film applied on one or both sides, so regardless of the plastic, it could have a film that's designed to be there. AFAIK, none of the marine hatches use a film on the outside of the plastic. Oddly enough duct tape is the wrong tape to use on vent ducting anyway. The thin metallic tapes bond better and longer. And gaffer's tape peels cleaner off most temporary things. Have you seem 3M's "Clear duct tape" yet? Way more expensive than the cheap packing tape though. I'm cheap, I save the duct tape for what needs it.

[TomRechtin]

I was looking to remove the sun shading film that Lagoon has put on cabin windows of some of their cats. After getting no effective help from Lagoon I procured some scrap acrylic and tried a few different products. Both Goo Gone and Good B Gone resulted in crazing of the acrylic. I ended up having good success, without any negative impact with a product by the name of Rapid Remover (manufactured out of Oregon). Just be sure and try it on a sample of acrylic first.

Cheers

[hellosailor]

Tom- The "solar tint" films that are commercially made by 3M and other major companies are applied by wetting them and allowing them to dry. They're damned resistant to any form of removal, which is why they can go 20+ years without any decay. The trick that my 3M installer passed on to me (and it is widely on the web) is that these films are designed to release with AMMONIA AND HEAT. That's right, you spray them down with bottled ammonia cleaner (non-sudsy kind is fine) and then you cover them with a paper towel or rag soaked with more ammonia. Top that with plastic film or a trash bag, and secure the edges. Now allow the mixture to bake (full sunlight or lamps) for 45 minutes or so. Times will vary with the materials, etc. After the ammonia has permeated the film, it should peel off pretty much in one sheet. Wash well and you're done. Now, there is one problem with this. Ammonia also eventually attacks glazing plastics and can cause long-term hazing and crazing, so there's a risk. All you can do to mitigate the risk is to use the shortest exposure time that works, and do a thorough clean-up. If there's an alternative solvent, I haven't found any mention of it. This could be like building things with 5200: No one envisions the need to undo it, so there's no easy way. If Lagoon can tell you whose film they used, you can always check with the maker, but AFAIK the installers say this is what they use on all of them. Typically on glass windows, of course, where it is not a problem.