Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I see that I need to pretty much clean all the glue off of my aluminum decking for vinyl. I guess I could use a drill with a wire wheel but I am thinking of getting a grinder.

I can get a 4 1/2 angle grinder or a 7 inch angle grinder.

Any recommendations?

A grinder wheel would most likely quickly "gum up" with both the glue residue and aluminum. If it were me I'd try a steel floor scraper first and then go from there. They're available at Lowe's or Home Depot. We use ones like the one linked below to remove adhesive labels that fall on the floor and gunk that gets embedded on some of our equipment rails but there are many more. A wider blade is tempting but if it gets a little bowed it becomes about useless.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Unger-4-in- ... /304137331

I tell ya what, you know so much about this, why don't you just drop down here to Florida and give me a hand

I plan on scraping it as good as I can but I was thinking I will need to scuff up the aluminum a little. I guess I will scrape it and see how it does. Got a long handled scraper from Harbor freight which should do the trick..

Helllll no. My grandparents are buried about an hour from you in Micanopy. I don't visit them either!

I'm just letting you know that aluminum is extremely frustrating to work with if you go the grinder route....it just embeds in the wheel/flap disc/whatever. For scuffing it before you do the adhesive you might have decent luck with a low speed orbital or palm sander and some 300-400 grit. Silicon carbide paper is supposed to be better on softer metals than aluminum oxide. All I've got is ideas though, no motivation or anything to back them up!

My .02....i would never be kneeling or sitting doing anything with a 7 inch grinder, that is a Darwin award presentation in waiting


Have you tried goo off?

Is deck rough, smooth, or?
Might need to freeze it(dry ice...read warnings beforehand) and scrape it, that's how we removed asphalt/sound deadening out of race cars

I will just scrape it and goo be gone and go from there.