Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Curmudge: I am removing a rubber backed carpet that was glued to the floor. It appears to be a latex glue of some sort. It was used around the edges of the carpet and is difficult to remove. So, with this incomplete information, are you able to recommend a solvent to remove the glue but leave the varnish. The carpet is gone but the ugly glue remains. It is a yellowish or white glue, if that helps with the diagnosis.

Absolutely. This is a latex emulsion glue. It is produced in two forms: toluene-based, and water-based. Both dry to the same hard mess and both can be cleaned with the same solvent. It is available at places like Home Depot and is generically known as "carpet adhesive solvent" (I know, sounds like a cop-out). I'm not sure what's in it; it's a blend of nasty petroleum solvents, but it does work and is the only thing I know that does work without damaging the floor or the varnish. From the smell, it's got some xylene and naphtha in it, but no acetone or lacquer thinner. I recommend opening the windows for plenty of fresh air and wearing rubber gloves. Saturate a rag with it and rub,rub. It can give you a headache if you breath too many of the fumes, so go easy. You can also use a dull putty knife with it to speed things along a bit. It's a tedious job.

I am glad that nobody glued carpet to one of your Ricks, which is what I originally thought when I saw the heading...

I find it amazing no one ever painted a Rick with the fuzzy paint of the late 60's. Anyone remember cars with that paint job on them? Kind of a velour velvet.

Oh, and this forum never ceases to amaze....

Flock!! At least that's what I think it was called, John.

Flock wallpaper was very popular also. A friend of the family did her entire interior (except bathroom, kitchen and laundry) in a burgundy, black and gold flock wallpaper! Gloomy and very depressing, it was..........

Gaudy and a great dust collector. Ahhh the late 60s and early 70s!! Thin shag carpeting in the low rent apts.

And hi-low shag in the bathrooms of the not-so-low-rent ones!

I suppose they had latex emulsion glue back then too......and body shirts with paisley ties, mutton chop sideys, psychedelic bling, etc.........

Thanks Paul. What do you think about this product? Off line if you wish. I am just trying to avoid a fully encapsulated suit with breathing apparatus and the jabs from family members that they have to leave their home. "And then there was the time that Dad tried to remove carpet glue."

Short answer, Peter:

They say it'll remove Liquid Nails, which is similar in formula to the stuff you're trying to get off. The queston is: Liquid nails that's still wet, or LN that has dried a year or two?

Worth a try. They also give you an 800 number to call. Also worth a try.

I myself have found that these citrus-based solvents work about 80% of the time, but require much, much longer than the nasty organic solvents to do the job. They also do not evaporate. This is both good and bad. They don't contribute to the greenhouse effect, but they've got to be scrubbed away with soap and hot water.

Gotta go. Just got an e-mail from a guy in the Orkneys who wants me to flock his 331. Something about a "Light Fuzz Job".

Some people are just stuck in the '70s.

70's decorating.... Oh no! Shortly after my husband and I were married we house-sat for some people in a very um.... INTERESTING house.... It was a huge 7-bedroom Victorian with a formal parlor, which at some point in the 70's had been made over by an "artist" who covered the original hardwood floors with puke yellow-green carpeting, and covered the walls in the formal parlor area with aluminum foil and then painted vertical pastel stripes over it.... It was ghastly. Oh, and the original elegant lighting fixture had been replaced with an awful art-deco creation made of string....

When I restored the hardwood floor in my dining room I pulled up 2 layers of stick on tiles & 1 layer of masonite. I think the previous owners of the house were nail salesmen! Their philosophy: if it's got any form of wood in it-put a nail in it!
It took me 3 hours to get the nails out of the floor before sanding (the ones I could find).

Avacado appliances and goldenrod countertops!!

The house we bought in '80 had this short nap midnight blue carpet with white flecking in it in the bathroom - looked like a night star-filled sky, but held moisture and with 4 people it got moldy pretty early on and went to the garage for the monthly collection. We had a garage sale and this lady saw it off to the side awaiting the day and she wanted it. I tried to give it to her and she wouldn't have it so I charged her a dollar and loaded it for her. She was happy and I had a story.

Kevin - my friend (and keyboards) was removing carpet and linoleum tiles in the dining room/kitchenn and found 2 layers of tiles, plywood and masonite and whoever laid the plywood used about 100,000,000 u-shaped long staples. They ended up having to pull each one out as it ripped the plywood when pulling it out. Pliers and screwdrivers! It was stapled every 3-4 inches about 8 inches apart for rows. I helped a bit so I sympathize.