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The title says it. I tried acetone and found out the hard way that it will melt them in seconds. I'm afraid to put them in the oven...any ideas

Those wheels must be similar to the Marui Galaxy/Hunter wheels, which are plastic and not nylon. One thing I've read people do is using acetone fumes to dissolve the CA glue, by putting the wheels in a plastic bag or something with acetone inside, but not touching the wheels. I'm not sure if acetone fumes will attack plastic, someone else maybe has tried this?

I've heard of the oven method too, but plastic would also probably begin to deform & melt at the temperatures need to eat the CA glue.

A few other things to try, one didn't do much for me but maybe it'll work for you--boil the wheels & tires. It might be enough. Also, freezing them.

Let us know what worked!

do you need to save the tires? if not, I'd cut the tires off as best as you can, and for me, I'd mount the wheel on something that can spin like a drill press or lathe, and file and sand the remnants off carefully. If not, lots of elbow grease with an xacto blade chipping and peeling off.

Coelacanth wrote: One thing I've read people do is using acetone fumes to dissolve the CA glue, by putting the wheels in a plastic bag or something with acetone inside, but not touching the wheels. I'm not sure if acetone fumes will attack plastic, someone else maybe has tried this?

yes I've done this for years now, cannot claim I've tried ALL wheel types though but as long as you use the fumes and not the liquid I'd say you'd be pretty safe.

Paul

I boiled an old set of Tamiya Quattro wheels, unfortuneatly they didn´t survive the treatment.

This is really strange because the wheels on the Gallop that you got from me were in acetone for a few days....and nothing happenend to them. All of the gallop wheels I've had were made out of nylon.

For a while, I thinking of using raider wheels on my Gallop, but I decided not to because the wheels were made out of plastic...and they would not have survived the acetone bath.

Thanks for the replies guys. Still thinking through this one. Roger, I am 99% certain the wheels I ruined were plastic, and I don't want to risk it with these. The ones that were destroyed were out of my parts box. These are the original fronts from your car. I like the freezing idea. That's easy and shouldn't cause any harm at the least. I think I'll try that first then cut the tires off and sand the rims smooth on a spindle as a last resort. I'll let you know...

Acetone fumes will attack incompatible materials the same way direct contact with the liquid will; it will just take longer.

Something that drives me crazy: nylon IS plastic, just a particular kind of plastic, like steel is a kind of metal. If the wheels aren't nylon, they're some other type of plastic like ABS, polystyrene, delrin, etc.

See jwscab's suggestion for the best way to remove the adhesive. It's a pain, but it's the only safe way for materials that don't play well with strong solvents like acetone.

Update. Froze the wheels overnight and the tires literally fell off the rims! My new favorite method! Amazing results!

Thanks for posting the freeze result - I´ll try that with another set of Quattro wheels.