Last week I picked up a pair of used aluminum gunwales for my solo canoe that has rotting wood gunwales thanks to the previous owner.

I had about 800 miles to drive to get home with them, so I taped them with black gorilla tape to the outside of the hull of my kevlar tandem. Getting the tape off the gunwales and the hull was difficult, and it left most of the adhesive on the gelcoat and some on my hands.

I got it off my hands relatively easily with WD40, but don't know what, if anything, the WD40 would do to the gelcoat. Other solvents I've thought about include alcohol, paint thinner, lacquer thinner, and acetone. I have all but acetone on hand.

So what should I use that will get the adhesive off with out damaging the gelcoat?

I'll try to figure out how to resize and attach pictures,

I also had Gorilla Tape adhesive on my canoe and Goo Gone worked well to remove the adhesive residue. It does leave the area a bit oily but soap and water worked fine to get that off.

Hi Fritz,

I just repaired my Prospector gel coat chip using Nova Craft resin repair kit. Instructions say use acetone to clean. So you know it won't hurt your boat.

Cheers

Ok, that seems definitive. Thanks.

Fritz

Methyl hydrate is a safe adhesive remover.

The results are in. Denatured alcohol - no. lacquer thinner - kind of works, but very labor intensive. Acetone - same as lacquer thinner. WD40 - messy but dissolves the adhesive quickly. With help from a plastic scrubby pad the adhesive turned into a thin black liquid coating, acetone on rags needed for final clean up. But acetone unsticks decals and stickers from the hull.

The remaining problem is that every scratch on the hull near where the adhesive has been removed is now black or gray. I'll see if I can clean them up with more acetone and rags. Or maybe just live with it.

Not sure if it is safe but you could use the "nuclear" option and use brake cleaner. That stuff can clean tire marks off concrete. Makes you wonder what gorilla tape is made of.

Cheers

Indeed, the tape stuck like it planned to never let go. I think you could almost make permanent repairs to paddles and hulls with it. When I pulled it off where it crossed the keel line it appears to have loosened the grip between a layer of sacrificial glex and the gel coat underneath. I'll watch those areas to see what happens.

Goo Gone works quite well for most stuff.

_________________

Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.