90lowboy Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 Hello, Does anyone have any suggestions on ungluing a model? I would like to completely undo and start over the model was put together years ago. THANKS in advance for the help...
MAGNUM4342 Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 (edited) It just so happens I did this very thing less than an hour ago while working on a Milk Truck Glue bomb. #1. There's no need to leave the model there for days. A couple hours will suffice. (no disrespect intended Jim) #2. Place the entire model or all parts you wish to take apart in a large ziplock bag. During the freezing process some parts may fall off on their own. #3. You'll find chrome parts easiest to take apart, especially in cases where the chrome was not scraped away prior to gluing. #4. Try to pull all parts straight away from the one it's attached to avoiding any twisting or prying motion. #5. In cases where chromed or painted parts were glued together without scraping I find a good dousing of Easy Off oven cleaner to be a good debonder. #6. If you absolutely must use a razor blade or knife STOP! Get up from your bench and go get a box of band-aids and a tube of neo-sporin. With these two items on the bench you will confound Murphy's law and greatly reduce your chances of cutting yourself. If you do cut yourself, pick up the band aids and neo-sporin with your good hand, and go directly to the sink. Rinse the cut under cold running water and add the sporin and band aid. Just remember to work slowly but deliberately and that there's no reason you can't re-freeze the parts that haven't yet come apart and try again. Good luck and be careful. Oh, and don't forget to let the rest of the household know it's in there so it doesn't get a box of freezie pops thrown on top of it. I hope this is a help. By the way, I find your avatar to be appropriately poetic for a thread titled "unglued". Jerome Horwitz (Curly Howard) was one of the most unglued characters ever! Edited September 20, 2013 by MAGNUM4342
Ramfins59 Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 Kevin, your Avatar doesn't look like a very well glued together character either...!!!
MAGNUM4342 Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 Kevin, your Avatar doesn't look like a very well glued together character either...!!! I'm pretty sure glue had SOMETHING to do with it though! And thank you Jim. Unfortunately I've gotten into the habit here of apologizing in advance because too many feathers get ruffled too easily around here.
Tom Geiger Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 Kevin, your Avatar doesn't look like a very well glued together character either...!!! Yea Kevin, I have trouble taking advice from the guy in the picture! You too Rich, if you leave that picture up too long people will think you really look like that!
Tom Geiger Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 and on a serious note, as you pull apart a glue bomb, note that there are assemblies that are just fine glued the way they are. For instance, there's no profit in pulling engine halves apart. You also have to look at the potential to damage parts vs just working around the preglued parts. I had a 1960 Falcon body where the glass was glued in so solid that I would break something if I removed it. The builder didn't get any glue on the windows so I just masked them off as I built. Also, depending on the model you are redoing, a rare annual may share parts with a later year car that is still in production. I have a 1969 Chevy that I will be restoring with parts from the 1970 Chevy kit which is still plentiful and cheap. In this case, it's just easier to start with a clean new chassis than deal with the gluey mess of the original one. And there may be parts like chrome body trim that's easier to leave on and paint or BMF later. I just did that on a '57 Ford old custom I was restoring. The chrome dual headlights were stuck on good, so I left them and foiled them after paint. If you need advise on a specific model, just ask the board. Someone here will know.
Ramfins59 Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 You too Rich, if you leave that picture up too long people will think you really look like that! Tom, I should take a picture of myself now. I haven't trimmed my white beard in months and I'm starting to get "the Santa Claus look" My wife doesn't care for it but I happen to like it. I figure that by Christmas it will look great for my almost 2 1/2 year old grandson.... and yeah... I sort of have the belly to go along with it.... HO HO HO
MAGNUM4342 Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 Tom, I should take a picture of myself now. I haven't trimmed my white beard in months and I'm starting to get "the Santa Claus look" My wife doesn't care for it but I happen to like it. I figure that by Christmas it will look great for my almost 2 1/2 year old grandson.... and yeah... I sort of have the belly to go along with it.... HO HO HO But can I just tell you what I want for Christmas without sitting on your lap?
Foxer Posted September 20, 2013 Posted September 20, 2013 I just recently had to take apart a couple gluebombs and came across a trick I'd never seen ... submitted in an old thread by our own, lovable, George53 ... use paint thinner to soften the tube glue. It really worked! I used thinners I had ... lacquer and enamel and the enamel seemed to work best. It's not a complete dissolving of the glue but helped loosen the joint a lot.
spawndude Posted September 24, 2013 Posted September 24, 2013 (edited) I would like to second the idea of not tempting fate and let parts that are just fine staying glued together. Edited September 24, 2013 by spawndude
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