# Lacquer Thinner - Safe around fiberglass?



## Finallybuyingaboat (Aug 28, 2007)

Okay, everyone here has been a big help in my boat rebuild. Well, today I ripped off some more linoleum, this time off of the seats. Now, there is still some cardboard backing and a lot of contact cement stuck to the wood. I know that I can remove contact cement from wood using laquer thinner, but is this safe to have around the interior fiberglass? May as well take 5 minutes to ask a question rather than chance it and make an even bigger mess.

As an aside, when I started this project, I had intended to do the bare minimum to get this boat sailing. Well, every time I turn around I say, "one more little project wouldn't hurt." The inside of the boat is almost totally ripped out now, and I had just intended to do a surface clean up. Oh well, good thing I have a long winter up here to get all of the little projects done. Nothing huge, just enough little annoying things have been done to this boat over the years in a very slip shod manner, and I would really like to turn it back into something I can be proud of.


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## thedudeistoocool (Jun 25, 2007)

*This is just my experience and*

YMMV but,

this summer my father and i built a cedar strip kayak and glassed it with west system epoxy

between each application of epoxy we would sand it down and then use laquer thinner to clean the sanded residue from the hull before applying the next layer of epoxy ( 3 in all and 2 more of varnish yet to come)

using the laquer thinner to soak the brushes in to clean them of epoxy was useless it evaporates REALLY FAST and just wasn't strong enough to get the epoxy out of the bristles even when some epoxy made contact with the skin I tried washing it down with laquer thinner and it barely made it tacky let alone removing it

we switched to Acetone for the last bits and it was much more effective at cleaning but still not anywhere near strong enough to penetrate the cured epoxy and fiberglass (not even enough to clean up a run of eposy which I'll have to sand down and then varnish over)

basically what I'm saying is I don't think laquer thinner has enough strength to damage properly laid up glass (acetone isn't strong enough either but it's stronger than laquer thinner) the benefit I found with the laquer thinner vs acetone is that acetone has much stronger fumes and needs to be used in very well ventilated area or with a respirator - I could breath laquer thinner all day and realize no ill effects but one wiff of acetone gets my head spinning But that's just me

anyhow good luck with your endeavor and I hope someone more experienced answers this post


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