I've stripped the soft vinyl trim out my 70 Z's interior and I'm now attempting to remove the old contact cement from the interior (painted metal) surfaces. Naptha is proving to be only sort of ok. It's effective only in the lightly-coated areas. It doesn't seem to do much more than encourage lightly-gripping glue remnants to roll up into 'balls' (after much scrubbing with a naptha-soaked cloth). Household glue remover ('Goof Off') seems to be better at actually dissolving the glue, but the contact area of the cloth quickly gets loaded up with dissolved glue and then it feels like I'm just rubbing dissolved glue into the stuck-on glue.

Anybody got any secret tips for getting this stuff off? (my arm's getting tired)

Researched the MSDS for contact cement and it listed the major solvent as Toluene (30-60%). Others solvents included Naphtha, which you've tried already, and MEK, which I would avoid.

Looks like Toluene would be a good next step.

Alcohol.

Depending on the kind of paint, you can try mineral spirits. However, that might not work much differently from the naptha. Basically, it swells up the adhesive so that you can roll it off. If you use something that can actually dissolve the adhesive, you might dissolve other stuff too.

I was just gonna say; "be careful with what you are dissolving". Trying to dissolve the glue could also dissolve the paint, or the vinyl, or anything plastic. If you got the glue to the point of rolling up in little balls, you got it good. Yes, when you wipe the stuff off it's gonna clog up your rag! You'll need lots of rags.

91% alcohol from a dollar store or Rosonol Lighter Fluid. Goof Off is mostly lighter fluid, I've met the guy that invented it at a paint and hardware show in Atlanta.

I found that '3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner #08984' was quite effective both on painted surfaces and vinyl, used as directed on the container.

Thanks, everyone. Lots of options to investigate. I think I'll try them all, and will report back later on my results. p.s. the paint in question here is the original factory paint, as applied on the interior panels (rear wheel housings, etc).

MSDS list VOCs for the 3M Adhesive Cleaner is

Ingredient, C.A.S. No., % by Wt

HYDROTREATED LIGHT NAPHTHA (PETROLEUM), 64742-49-0, 30% - 60%

XYLENE, 1330-20-7, 30% - 60%

ETHYLBENZENE, 100-41-4, 7% - 13%

TOLUENE, 108-88-3, 0.5% - 1.5%

BENZENE, 71-43-2, < 0.1%

I went 'chemical shopping' on the way home from work yesterday, so now have a full assortment of stuff to try out this weekend.

@djwarner: The tin of MEK I spotted at in the store specifically mentioned on the label that it was good for contact cement removal. Out of curiosity, why do you recommend against?

MEK has more health issues than the others listed here.

Automotive sticker remover worked