Scratchplate protective film removal?

paulnb57

I have a scratch plate that has been in storage for a while, which still has the protective film on and it is reluctant to come off.
Any tips to soften its adhesive without ruining the plate?

Ta!

BillDL

Try running it under WARM, not hot, water to start with.  That MIGHT just soften it enough to start peeling without it tearing, but it could just separate and leave stickiness on the scratchplate.

paulnb57

Thanks Bill Ill give it a go

Flip

Local garageman remarked on the manufacturer's stickers on the inside of my rear windscreen and recommended using WD40 to soften/loosen them and then warm water.

paulnb57

Bills solution worked a treat, I filled the washing up bowl with warm water, which allowed the film to start peeling, it soon started to get difficult again so I had to keep dunking it…
All sorted now, thanks chaps

BillDL

That's great news @paulnb57 ;

It's always risky using solvents on plastics.  The problem with scratchplates is that if it's a multi-ply the very bottom ply is usually the "in between" material, so if you do a test run of a solvent on the underside you can't be sure if the material used for the top layer will react the same to the solvent.

I always found methylated spirits to be quite benign on most plastics and certainly on polyurethane/polyester guitar lacquer, but some manufacturers now seem to add more acetone (or similar) to the alcohol than others and that can damage plastics.  I found this out quite a while ago with the Bartoline brand of "mineralised" methylated spirit sold by Asda and some of the DIY warehouses and I used it to remove a sticky label from a plastic tumbler.  I started buying the Screwfix No Nonsense meths instead and that was fine, but my last bottle from there damages some plastics.  You can smell the acetone type solvent from it above that of the alcohol.

ICBM

WD-40 and even standard contact cleaner are actually quite useful as fairly benign solvents if you're not sure about possible plastic damage. I've never found any problems with them on anything like this.

Definitely don't use 'label remover' or anything similar unless you've tested it on something similar to the actual plastic layer at the front - it's often extremely aggressive. (It will attack CD jewel cases, for example.)

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

WD-40 and even standard contact cleaner are actually quite useful as fairly benign solvents if you're not sure about possible plastic damage. I've never found any problems with them on anything like this.

Definitely don't use 'label remover' or anything similar unless you've tested it on something similar to the actual plastic layer at the front - it's often extremely aggressive. (It will attack CD jewel cases, for example.)

Shoot, I just bought (well, I say that, it's a few months, luckily I haven't got round to using it yet!) some label remover to get some gunk (adhesive left because of not removing the protective film soon enough!) off a scratchplate. I'll try contact cleaner first! Thanks for the heads-up

viz

Vodka will also do

paulnb57

viz said:

Vodka will also do

Seems a terrible waste!

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

Shoot, I just bought (well, I say that, it's a few months, luckily I haven't got round to using it yet!) some label remover to get some gunk (adhesive left because of not removing the protective film soon enough!) off a scratchplate. I'll try contact cleaner first! Thanks for the heads-up

Most *normal* pickguard materials should be OK, and on a standard 3-ply guard the front and back layers are the same - although the back sometimes has a matt finish, so it might be harder to tell if the solvent has attacked it - it's mostly things like pearl and tortoise you need to be careful with, where the front may be a different material.

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

Shoot, I just bought (well, I say that, it's a few months, luckily I haven't got round to using it yet!) some label remover to get some gunk (adhesive left because of not removing the protective film soon enough!) off a scratchplate. I'll try contact cleaner first! Thanks for the heads-up

Most *normal* pickguard materials should be OK, and on a standard 3-ply guard the front and back layers are the same - although the back sometimes has a matt finish, so it might be harder to tell if the solvent has attacked it - it's mostly things like pearl and tortoise you need to be careful with, where the front may be a different material.

Ah ok, thanks. I think this is just a standard black 3-ply one.