Removing Gorilla tape residue from wheel rims

[steve_sordy]

I used Gorilla tape on my wheel rims, as recommended by my LBS. It's great, looks fantastic and it works a treat.

But Oh boy! When you want to remove it what an absolute sod! When you peel it off the thick sticky adhesive is left behind. I have tried a proprietary "Sticky Stuff Remover" that has shifted all other adhesive residues before today, but not this time. I have tried iso-propyl alcohol which easily shifted sun-baked pine sap from my car roof, also a fail. It won't even rub off with a rough towel!

I contacted the Gorilla Tape manufacturers, hoping they might say use meths or soap & water, anything! To my dismay, I was told that they do not have a recommended method of removing the adhesive residue. The person I was talking to says that she has heard recommendations of using the tape itself to pull off the residue. That might work, as I have used Sellotape to do that on Sellotape residue. But it didn't..., well, maybe just a little bit. It does pull some off, but only reduces the thickness of the adhesive it wont pull it of the alloy rim.

I have tried picking it off, but it very, very, very slow indeed. I have taken a break from the task right now, so I thought I'd post here. Does anyone have any solutions for this task? PLEASE!

I have at the back of my mind to try a hairdryer to maybe soften the glue and just rub it off. Or maybe hot water would be quicker?

 

[yorkshire89]

Have you tried 'sticky stuff remover'? You can get it in B&Q
Isopropyl Alcohol would probably do the job.

Sorry didn't read your post fully

 

[The Hodge]

Have you tried WD40 ..?
I know how highly you rate it ! ?
( but it might work )

 

[steve_sordy]

Have you tried WD40 ..?
I know how highly you rate it ! ?
( but it might work )

I will try anything, but I don't have any. I will try TF2 though, you never know!

 

[Mcharza]

I used Gorilla tape on my wheel rims, as recommended by my LBS. It's great, looks fantastic and it works a treat.

But Oh boy! When you want to remove it what an absolute sod! When you peel it off the thick sticky adhesive is left behind. I have tried a proprietary "Sticky Stuff Remover" that has shifted all other adhesive residues before today, but not this time. I have tried iso-propyl alcohol which easily shifted sun-baked pine sap from my car roof, also a fail. It won't even rub off with a rough towel!

I contacted the Gorilla Tape manufacturers, hoping they might say use meths or soap & water, anything! To my dismay, I was told that they do not have a recommended method of removing the adhesive residue. The person I was talking to says that she has heard recommendations of using the tape itself to pull off the residue. That might work, as I have used Sellotape to do that on Sellotape residue. But it didn't..., well, maybe just a little bit. It does pull some off, but only reduces the thickness of the adhesive it wont pull it of the alloy rim.

I have tried picking it off, but it very, very, very slow indeed. I have taken a break from the task right now, so I thought I'd post here. Does anyone have any solutions for this task? PLEASE!

I have at the back of my mind to try a hairdryer to maybe soften the glue and just rub it off. Or maybe hot water would be quicker?

I have done this also once, never again.

Removing the glue was such a big pain and took time. I used Brackleen

 

[Tim1023]

Give oil a go, e.g. olive oil. It's bizarre, but it has helped me get rid of various seriously-stuck-on crap.
Good 'ol WD40 might be worth a go too.

 

[RickBullotta]

Don't use oily materials if you want good adhesion again. It will get into the spoke holes and never come out.

Use Goof Off or a similar adhesive removal product. Let it dry, then clean it off with isopropyl alcohol.

 

[steve_sordy]

TF2 is a non starter, but I'm making progress with Sellotape. Pressing it on and peeling it off. Works better than the Gorilla tape.

 

[Sammy]

Put toiletpaper or something similar on to top of resedue and soak it with oil. Wd40 works fine. Let it rest there maybe few hours and then start to scrub it off. It wont go easy, but after hard scrubbing it will surrender. And when you scrub it add more oil when needed.

 

[steve_sordy]

Hot water softened it. A rough towel dragged the adhesive around but it didn't remove it. I used near boiling water straight from the kettle.

Acetone didn't work either.

Sellotape is the most certain so far, and gives a good result, but it's slow.
Tear off 3"-4" of Sellotape and apply to the adhesive, press lightly and slowly, slowly (I said slowly!) peel off the Sellotape. Experiment with pulling it off at various angles to see what works best. Repeated application seems to work because the first couple sure don't. I have completed about 25% and that took me 90 mins. (Yes! 90 mins!!!!)

 

[Cisco]

Petrol on a rag removes the residue from Gorilla tape quickly...

And leaves the rim ready to be retaped.

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

I have loads of pure acetone laying around for work and that gets anything off, especially tape residue

 

[B1rdie]

Lay strips of rag soaked on solvent and let it rest there for an hour +
Use nitrile gloves on this job.

 

[Worthy]

White spirit works but it has to be left soaking for a while.

 

[steve_sordy]

Petrol on a rag removes the residue from Gorilla tape quickly...

And leaves the rim ready to be retaped.

That is the sort of answer I was looking for!
Not to diminish the other much appreciated answers, but I have about 12 gallons of petrol just outside the house and plenty of rags (not to be confused with what my wife calls my biking gear!).

When I said acetone didn't work, I meant that my wife's nail polish remover didn't work. It is mostly acetone, but nowhere near enough apparently.

 

[steve_sordy]

I'll try the petrol tomorrow and report back.

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

Never use gorilla tape again! Pay £15 for some proper tape (DT Swiss is good) and then you’ll never need to put petrol on your rims.

gorilla tape residue is an absolute pain.

Edit - sorry, my post isn’t very helpful but hopefully it’ll stop someone using gorilla tape on rims. I had exact issue - had to remove gorilla tape from a bike I’d lent someone what they’d attempted (and failed) to go tubeless. Luckily it was only on for less than 12 hours, but still a pain to remove.

 

[Zimmerframe]

90 minutes ... how much evidence do you need that it's new bike time ?

 

[Zimmerframe]

Ethanol I think would also do the trick.

 

[Zimmerframe]

gorilla tape residue is an absolute pain.

Many years ago when Rob was young free and single ... his youtube channel was Rob Rides ......... well, anyway .. but there was always duct tape, I remember that much ..

 

[RickBullotta]

Ethanol I think would also do the trick.

Correct. It must carbonated and blended with malts and hops, and administered prior to attempting to remove the tape goo.

 

[steve_sordy]

I thought you might be interested to see what I'm on about.

I have already made a start on removing some of the adhesive residue from where the tyre bead sits at the top of the picture. But not at the bottom. You can see that the offset spoke holes in the RaceFace AR30 rim alternate from just a bit off-centre to almost breaking through into the gully where the tyre bead goes. Not sure how I can seal that close spoke hole without also laying a layer of rim tape on the bulge between it and the gulley.
For a cross section view of the rim see post #4 from @STATO here:
Tips on removing a tyre please - EMTB Forums

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

When I said acetone didn't work, I meant that my wife's nail polish remover didn't work. It is mostly acetone, but nowhere near enough apparently.

5% usually I get the lab grade stuff

 

[PhilBaker]

If nothing get's it off, there is one thing I use that I've not seen mentioned (apologies if I missed it), and that's heat.

If you heat up the residue with a hard dryer, you can then put sellotape on the hot residue and when you peel off the sellotape the glue should come of with it ?

 

[Zimmerframe]

If you heat up the residue with a hard dryer

I think Steve mentioned earlier, he only had a soft dryer unfortunately.

 

[RickBullotta]

I thought you might be interested to see what I'm on about.

I have already made a start on removing some of the adhesive residue from where the tyre bead sits at the top of the picture. But not at the bottom. You can see that the offset spoke holes in the RaceFace AR30 rim alternate from just a bit off-centre to almost breaking through into the gully where the tyre bead goes. Not sure how I can seal that close spoke hole without also laying a layer of rim tape on the bulge between it and the gulley.
For a cross section view of the rim see post #4 from @STATO here:
Tips on removing a tyre please - EMTB Forums

View attachment 45632

New wheel time!

 

[Darren]

Why don't you just put some more Gorilla tape over it?

 

[steve_sordy]

If nothing get's it off, there is one thing I use that I've not seen mentioned (apologies if I missed it), and that's heat.

If you heat up the residue with a hard dryer, you can then put sellotape on the hot residue and when you peel off the sellotape the glue should come of with it ?

I was going to use a hair dryer, but then I decided to use hot water instead as I thought it would be more controllable. Then I gave up on that and used Sellotape, which works, if a bit slow. Thanks for the suggestion of using the hair dryer and Sellotape in combination. I will try that tomorrow, if the petrol doesn't work.

 

[steve_sordy]

Why don't you just put some more Gorilla tape over it?

That was a very early plan before I realised that the problem was the tyre is too tight. So putting yet more Gorilla tape (which is quite thick) over the top was not going to be an improvement. I need to get all the old stuff off and use some really thin rim tape. Suggestions please, anyone?

 

[Darren]

Ah I see - Stan's rim tape is quite thin, thinner than helicopter tape I would say.