RC How-To: Unglue Tires, with acetone

[dainjarouz]

Didn't work with Jconcepts bar codes. Noticeably hardened and shrunk mine. Still a great method to get tires off. Just in my case I still wanted to reuse them!

[Dieselboy805]

did you dye these wheels??

[29gobills]

do traxxas rustler vxl tires and wheels work

[xxgg]

foam will be useless afterwards i guess ?

[kizl3t]

Thanks, has helped me decide to buy pre-made ones :)

[bgerardm]

I tried acetone to get the tires unglued from my Losi micro crawler and the tires deteriorated before my eyes. The is a special solvent available for cyanoacrylate glues. When I reglue I'll try something easier to remove.

[MrJim999919]

This is a great video.

I successfully used a metal coffee can, along with its plastic lid to contain the fumes.

[joaomedina]

How many % is this acetone?? I only found the 60%. Can I use this?

[paladain55]

well, my tires are metallic plate with a chrome finish. i wouldnt think it would mess this up, but its better to be safe then sorry, so will i be fine doing this? im not planning on reusing the drift tires i have on there

[Douty1k]

Jang- Do you know if this would work for Black RPM wheels and proline M3 compound tires(Flat Irons)? Also, I believe you said that the foams could be reused, is that correct? I need to remove my two back wheels so that I can strap them, and I heard that water would ruin the foams, so I'm excited to see if this will work. Thanks!

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@Douty1k Those wheels and tires are both fine with this method. However, check out my newer video showing three different methods that can be used for ungluing, as well as a suggestion for a hybrid method that saves time and money.

[i8bvr2002]

very cool my wife will be happy to here about this as i always did the bioling thing stunk up the house up stair's now ill do it in the shed and she'l be happy with no more smell of the use of her nice stove of and hydro too lol

[Xbox360481]

Hi,

I just PM'ed you this and then I figured out that I should have commented it, so you said it will ruin Traxxas rtr tires, but will it ruin the wheels? I don't need the tires, since they are trashed but will it melt the wheels? Also, will it take the black chrome paint off of them? And will I be able to dye them with Rit dye if the paint does come off?

Thanks,

Nick

[airsoft948]

can i unglue maxstone 16 rims from the tires

[shikakae123]

Can I use a metal pot to put the acetone?

[bobwinsthelottery]

Great video

[bobwinsthelottery]

Acetone is the shit

[vikkiandbradley07]

how does this differ to boiling the tyres and wheels? ive always boiled them and that works fine, also its much cheaper

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@vikkiandbradley07 Check out my newer video that shows and compares all 3 methods simultaneously.

[fattychan1234]

@vikkiandbradley07 hey when you baked your wheels and tires does it wreck the foams?thanks.

[Nando5966]

Thanks for your help UltimateRCnetwork 

[Nando5966]

Can I use acetone on my pro-line wheels (they are black wheels is there any problem?)

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@Nando5966 No trouble with any Pro-Line wheels. My Split Sixes have been acetone'd twice each and are like new.

[vietdude1979]

@UltimateRCnetwork Would acetone melt the HPI rims? I'm just wondering?

[nameloc1000]

does acetone melt lexan?

[madeinquebec]

Question: can you reuse the acetone and can you recuperate it or toss it back in the can? And after you used it, how do you get rid of or how do you dispose of acetone? Wouldn't you want to put a hermetic cover on the container rather than just aluminum foil? Thanks for the video!

[CMACdaDJ]

i literally have boxes upon boxes of old rims and tires from over the years. thank u very much for this video. u just saved me a ton of money. awesome!

[MrDavidfuchser]

An excellent how-to. Thanks for the video.

[Killer91109]

What's the difference between this, and boiling r/c tires?

[mikemontgomery1970]

Can the wheel used by losi on their strike platform be dunked in acetone? I tore a tire while running it a month back. But now I am wondering if I cn re-use the wheel and mount a new tire to it.

[brainanator]

thanks for the money saving tip Jang.

[SLASHINANDBASHIN]

what wheels and tyres are they?

[nerdyrcdriver]

I know this can get expensive when dealing with a lot of cars but just use beadlock rims. That way you can simply take some screws out and take your tire off without getting it wet or hot. Then you can reuse the rims and the tires easily. You can buy most tires without rims.

[pvalenti]

@nerdyrcdriver Yeah...maybe if you are bashing with a slow 1/10th scale car that'd be an option. However if you have an 1/8th buggy beadlocks are too heavy and won't hold the tires on the rims at all!

[xDarknest07x]

And thats why I hate using DTX wheel and tires...crappy quality and cannot be heated...

[MotoTechTips]

i have those tires and wheels on my traxxas revo 2.5r...

[nerocinense]

Can I use acetone on exceed rc electrics. I don't know what type on plastic exceed uses so that y I want to know if I can do it.

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@nerocinense Not sure, haven't tried their wheels. You'd need to use the method shown early in the video to test them first to make sure they won't dissolve!

[kiriakoskakos]

thanx for replying do you know how to unglue them and use them again?

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@kiriakoskakos I don't know how to unglue foam tires, no. Didn't even think it could be done without damaging the tires. Sorry :(

[kiriakoskakos]

can i use acetone to unglue soft foam tires made for drag racing without destroying them?

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@kiriakoskakos I don't believe it would completely destroy foams, but it would definitely dry them up quite a bit and they'd no longer have enough traction for racing.

[gabster118]

Yes finally i can take off fairly new tyres from broken rims to reuse them!

[fernades45]

can i use acetone on stock wheel from the slash 4x4?

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@fernades45 Yes. Do note that acetone removes chrome, though.

[fernades45]

@UltimateRCnetwork yes, i want to remove the chrome to cuz i wanna paint it black :)

thanks

[traxxas91296]

@UltimateRCnetwork Can i put traxxas wheels in acetone???

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@traxxas91296 Yes.

[esurfer26]

Thank you for the video, it does help!

[EndoCloudz]

sweet, i never liked the whole idea of putting plastic + rubber in my oven

[merrell89]

acetone takes off chrome right??

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@merrell89 Yes it does.

[2testtest2]

This looks cool. I just dicovered that one of my tires are glued slightly off the bead, and therefor starts to woble slightly, whitch annys me, and probably has some affect on handling. Do you think it would be possible to use acetone to dissolve the glue from only one part of the tire? Or would I be better of regluing the entire wheel?

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@2testtest2 You can do just one side by only submerging the tire partway (using less acetone), but because you need to really soak in the liquid, it's not possible to just unglue a one-inch section of one part of a tire, a 1/4 inch section of another, etc. One side is about the least you can do, as you also have to be able to dry the foam insert before you reglue.

[merrell89]

i got some mashers on stock stampede vxl wheels could i use it on them?? plz reply

[UltimateRCnetwork]

@merrell89 Yes acetone is safe on Traxxas wheels and on all Pro-Line tires.

[gravediggerfan93]

Where can you get the same color of silver paint HPI sprays on there stock Savage X rims? I did this and I lost the paint on my rims and I now need to find the right color of paint so I can repaint them. On the bright side though this did work great.

[wiifan62]

will this work with the proline sand paw paddle tires?

[UltimateRCnetwork]

It will definitely remove the glue. I have not specifically tested those tires though to see if they're acetone-safe!

[wiifan62]

have you tested the proline tires? i would assume they are all made of the same rubber

[UltimateRCnetwork]

I have indeed done many, many full sets of Proline tires, but they do use a wide range of different compounds. The Sand Paws, like the Speed Paws and Trac-a-Gators, use an exceptionally stiff compound which I think may be different from the normal M2/M3 pliable stuff, and I haven't tried any of those. Their regular tires are all perfectly fine with acetone, but I just haven't tried the weird ones.

[wiifan62]

OK cool i wont try it because i can afford another set but if you try them PLEASE let me know how they turn out.

Brian

[Buschy009]

will the paint come of matte wheels from doing this??

[UltimateRCnetwork]

Acetone does remove chrome and paint, yes.

[Bigpanch]

Sweat i need to do this on my Rustler Wheels love that design gotta save em.

ic you updated the workshop since i last seen it nice job Jang!

[legostuffguy]

does chrome come off from doing this?

[UltimateRCnetwork]

Yep it does. I actually have another video up about removing chrome from wheels with acetone :D

[traxxas91296]

Very great vid do you know how much an acetone like yours cost??? and where to get them the cheapest???

[rcsammy3007]

im deffinatly going to try this next time, i did some 2.2" wheels and tyres last week using the baking method but as said it left alot of glue and smelt really bad

one question i have though is what is simple green? im in the UK and we dont get it over here, but i would like to try and find somthing similar

[UltimateRCnetwork]

Simple Green is a green-colored, concentrated general household cleaner. I think it's made with a chlorophyl-based product. Cleans really well and leaves no residue, and is especially good for getting maximum traction out of used tires. Try to find a good concentrated low-toxicity cleaning agent that isn't oil-based.

[gruzergrub5000]

does this not damage the inner foam? i have some imex all T wides i wanna remove but their that closed cell foam, idk if this would damage the inner foam or the rubber on the tire.

[UltimateRCnetwork]

I've never had foams damaged from this method in almost 10 years of doing it, *BUT* I have not yet tried closed-cell foam with it!

[traxfan32]

What do you think about the baking method?? (tire removal) Also have you tried easy off for chrome??

Thoughts?

[UltimateRCnetwork]

The baking method works, but it can be hard to get right. It takes quite a lot of heat, an amount which can warp some wheels, and really stink the hell out of your house. It's also particularly tougher when you have tires much wider than the wheels, and it leaves the glue on the tires, whereas acetone leaves everything clean.

Easy-Off works great for dechroming, but it's horrifically toxic (incl. the fumes). I will be doing a couple different vids with it, though.