Silicone is truly evil.

[ebb]

nope haven't tried it.

DSR-5, seems to be mostly aliphatic hydrocarbons and special wetting agents. They call it an "un-bonder"

You work it in where you want to remove CURED SILICONE AND 5200.
Said to be "safer than most solvents regarding skin contact and material." Non-corrisive. Non HAZ MAT.

Safe on metals, aluminum, glass, wood, cabinets, fiberglass, gelcoat, acrylic, polycarbonates, carpets ,vinyl flooring and fabrics, varnished, urethaned or painted surfaces, formica.

Removes other adhesives, contact cement, tape residue, stickers, road tar, chewing gum, enamel spray paint.

Whether it gets the oil out of the gelcoat, probably not. But maybe once you've gotten all the solid rubber away, find a solvent for silicone oil. Research, research!

[c_amos]

....find a solvent for silicone oil. Research, research!

There in lies the rub.

I am afraid that is the 'holy grail' of the sily-cone removal problem. There are lots of de-bonders out there, but NOTHIN that seems to be a real solvent.

What I understand though is that the only real solvent for silicone is silicone....

[ebb]

Stuff we need may turn out to be a super detergent, or a super emulsifier*, or something ghastly that denatures the soaked in (organic) oil. No solvent seems to melt the stuff. Can't be any kind of a coating or primer we now have, that's the rub.

On those cockpit sidedecks I ended up removing the gelcoat!!!!!
The problem is we are a shrinking niche market for a silicone oil remover.

Wonder if butyl makes a good sticky seal on contaminated gelcoat. In theory we wouldn't usually need an adhesive bond for watertight fasteners......
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* Polygone is a silicone emulsifier (digestor) used in the aircraft industry. So strong you don't use it on copper, aluminum, galvanized or plastics. They have a formula that even breaks down polysulfide.
On a "finishers" site where a thread is discussing prep and how to clean off silicone, one guy is saying that silicone contamination is in parts per billion - even on stainless steel you can not remove all of it - and in parts per billion, the molecules left on stainless will still screw up the coating you want to put on.

In terms of contaminaion we can place Silicone on the same HALF LIFE scale as Plutonium 239 - 24,000 years!

[c_amos]

....I ended up removing the gelcoat!!!!!
The problem is we are a shrinking niche market for a silicone oil remover....

As I have complained about since I did it, I removed the gelcoat and even chiseled out some of the underlying fiberglass.... and I still have some localized paint failures where I did not get all of the dreaded stuff.

I have a couple places on the sidedecks where the jib track was bedded with silicone that were stripped, over drilled, filled and double primed... and they have failed. I really, truly, passionately hate silicone.

Wonder if butyl makes a good sticky seal on contaminated gelcoat. In theory we wouldn't usually need an adhesive bond for watertight fasteners......

Yes, I hope so. I would think it would work well, since you are putting it in compression and not relying on adhesion to keep it in place.