Hey everyone. So a previous owner glued something on the door panels years ago and the glue has all hardened and it's very thick. I've tried using goo-gone and a thin piece of metal to chisel it off but I'm not having much luck. Anyone have thoughts on some sort of chemical that I could use? I'm almost at the point of just buying replacement panels or something, but mine are otherwise in good shape so it seems like it would be a waste.

 

lacquer thinner or acetone.

 

If the old glue is stuck on a piece of plastic or vinyl trim as it looks in the picture, it could be very difficult to remove without damaging what it's on. Acetone or lacquer thinner might work, but before you go to town with that, I'd check it first on a small backside piece of that panel to make sure it won't chemically damage the plastic/vinyl surface you want to stay intact.

Another technique you can try which works great for stubborn adhesives and that tar-like goo they use to stick the plastic liners on metal (inside door panels) is rapid freezing & chipping. Here's the procedure:

1. Buy a can or two of "computer duster" compressed air, which is really HFC152A - a refrigerant, and get a sturdy plastic scraper to use.

2. Wear safety googles & gloves, cause when you use it this way you can get frostbite if it hits unprotected skin.

3. Holding the can upside down (i.e., with the nozzle tube/spray valve on the bottom), spray the stuff at the glue you want removed & surrounding area. It will come out as an extremely cold liquid and freeze solid anything it touches very quickly.

4. Then quickly take your scraper and try to chip the glue off the surface; if you're lucky the whole glue chunk will come off the surface as one piece.

 

Pete, that sounds awesome and I'll give it a try. I bought a can of acetone and it's finally making a dent, but it's slow work. I'm just trying to get it smooth enough to the match the rest of the surface so I can upholster the panels in leather or something and cover it all up, so as long as I get the stuff off somehow I'm not too concerned about what's underneath.

 

So the solution turned out to be to just get new door panels. Even with acetone, scraping, etc. it wasn't coming off much at all.

 

Thanks, I've been waiting over a year for you to follow up.