Swim Platform Help

[wolfeman131]

how about a serious tip from me?

get one of those wallpaper scoring tools to put holes in the film so the gas or other thinner will get below to the glue.

I'm not sure if there would be a problem, but something about using a heat gun and gas together makes me nervous.

here is what I'm talking about. Looks like they have them at Lowe's

http://www.lowes.com/pd_64100-1748-2...Scoring%20Tool

[volfo]

Ed, sounds like you have been through this rodeo before. I will give it a try. I used just a little gas last night, being careful not to let any spill, but I will try again with more. I think the other suggestion about scraping a hole or two in it in some place to hopefully let some gas get under it also can't hurt so if the gas doesn't work immediately I will try that.

[JesseC]

I finally ended up winning the battle with a razor blade, heat gun (wife's hair dryer) and a TON of patience. After the plastic was off, getting the glue off was not that bad. I took mine out in the driveway in the evening, sprayed it with gasoline and then carefully scraped with a dull gasket scraper. It all came off fairly easy. The hard part that I had was the plastic bottom from the original pad. The rubber seperated from it and made it impossible to get off. After getting the glue off, i wiped it down with a bottle of alcohol and put on the new pad.

[Razzman]

Everyone that pulls up the stock pad has the hassles of pulling the pad and glue to deal with. All of us that have installed Seadek have experienced it. At least you have knowledge from those that have done it. I was the first to install one and had no assist so i had to experiment until i found success! Acetone will remove the glue easily without hurting anything. Luckily mine pulled off a lot easier than the glue did!

[volfo]

Jesse, same thing happened to me. The glue is a little bit of a pain to get off once the plastic is off but is nothing at all compared. I can get that off easy. It's the plastic film on top of the glue, which stayed on the platform when the rubber pad came off, that I can't conquer.

I think Wolfe's suggestion is a good one to get gas down below the film. And I share his concern about heat gun and gas! I am going to try with heat gun quickly first and if that doesn't work, move to plan b with the heat gun put away.

I like the seadek, but I honestly think I'd prefer to put another monster tower on my boat, winterize it, and install a cargo bimini than replace the pad! I guess I just have to find the right combination!

[volfo]

Okay, here is what worked for me. Others had other experiences, but this is waht worked for me.

Heat gun. I'll say it again. Heat gun. Not a hair dryer, but a heat gun. A wagner Heat Gun HT 1000 to be exact. With that, set at 1,000 degrees setting, the stuff came right up with apainters' spackle/drywall knife.

Went back over with a little paint thinner to get most of the stick off. Still had some left, moved to denatured alcohol and it came up pretty good. I actually used a little fiberglass cleaner with an electric buffer to get it good and clean.

Then I put the pad perfectly in place and put a bunchc of heavy stuff on one-half of it. Bent the other half up in the air, made sure it would come down in place, then lifted up again, sliced the sticky backing down the middle with a razor knife, and then slowly let it down from the center out to the end. smoothed it down real good, and started on the other side. Simple as pie.

Had I started with the heat gun, it was probably a 20 minute job to get it close to clean. I messed around another hour getting it perfect but it was good enough in another 20 minutes.

And it looks very nice. Very glad I did it. Just upset I started and got so frustrated when I didn't have the proper tool for the job.

[lsvboombox]

For anyone else tackling glue on the fiberglass, try acetone...... I've recarpeted two 21 foot bass boats that I had bought.. Took me less than 6 hours*(per boat) to get the glue up on each....

Soaked the glue with acetone and used a plastic scraper, then use a rag soaked with acetone to clean up the residual... Wear gloves though, it will irritate your hands after awhile...

here is the latest one finished..