Are all Hotmelt frames a sticky mess?!?
- Thread starter bcart1991
- Start date
retrowagen
Hall of Fame
This is the “melt” part of Hotmelt! Hahahaha
beltsman
G.O.A.T.
What is the coating and why is it there?
Steve Huff
G.O.A.T.
Have you tried Goof-Off? It's one of the better adhesive removers and I'd guess you'd have pretty good luck with it for this too.
dak95_00
Hall of Fame
Many racquets have this problem. Rubbing alcohol or any alcohol based cleaner will do the trick with the use of a good ol’ rag/towel and elbow grease. I actually have a newer Head Gravity that’s gotten grimy. I think it’s just a combination of humidity, sweat, age, and nastiness that’s collected.
Ronaldo
Bionic Poster
Plastidip those puppies. Have an iPrestige mid without this problem. iPrestige mp xl with that peeling paint
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kevin qmto
Legend
I carefully used lacquer thinner on paper towels to remove the deteriorating rubber coating on a Prince Triple Threat, took a long time but it came out very well.
Ronaldo
Bionic Poster
Forgotabout that rubbery coating on the TT Graphites. Noticed the same on a Prince More Thunder
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graycrait
Legend
I quite often delve into the bowels of the big auction site for old graphite rackets. Goof-Off is a must, Goo-Gone is lame. I have never had an issue with Goof-Off. I often use it to clean up old handles where the base grip has deteriorated and often leaves a sticky mess. I also snagged an 8/10 original Bumble Bee OS that l saw on the auction site that looked terrible but on close examination I thought that stick looks like it is covered in crease or something. Got it for a song and Goof-Off cleaned it right up.
This kind of rubberized surface is found on a lot of other things from that era and also end up as a sticky mess. In addition to other things, I had a bunch of racquets with this issue, including a few hotmelts. I cleaned it up by scraping it off with kitchen scrubbers (scrubber like scotch brite) lubed with water and soap. The racquets cleaned up just fine -- they looked good afterwards -- with a bit of effort and the gunk is left on the scrubbers (so they are effectively ruined). If I was to do it again, I'd do the same and also try alcohol as a solvent to see if that helps as suggested in previous posts.
StringGuruMRT
Semi-Pro
Yeah. I had a client bring in a 200g and it was a mess. Goof Off took care of it pretty easily
Kemitak
Professional
That’s what I found…
Haasquet
Rookie
Awesome. Thanks.
Dakota60
Rookie
The Hotmelt was indeed a Hot Mess! Loved the way they played but hated holding it with my non-dominant hand. I ended up scraping off the top rubber coat and sending it for a gloss clear coat. Here are my 100G's and 200G's post gloss with prostock vibes all over. haha... Plays similarly as before but SO MUCH NICER to look at and hold.
You can try using an alcohol swab to rub it down but that will take a while but the finish won't be even. It will show a semi-gloss finish underneath the rubber top coat. I simply scraped mine off with a metal ruler and the clear coat will fill the scratched up parts nicely.
Before & After
You can try using an alcohol swab to rub it down but that will take a while but the finish won't be even. It will show a semi-gloss finish underneath the rubber top coat. I simply scraped mine off with a metal ruler and the clear coat will fill the scratched up parts nicely.
Before & After
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Haasquet
Rookie
The Hotmelt was indeed a Hot Mess! Loved the way they played but hated holding it with my non-dominant hand. I ended up scraping off the top rubber coat and sending it for a gloss clear coat. Here are my 100G's and 200G's post gloss with prostock vibes all over. haha... Plays similarly as before but SO MUCH NICER to look at and hold.
You can try using an alcohol swab to rub it down but that will take a while but the finish won't be even. It will show a semi-gloss finish underneath the rubber top coat. I simply scraped mine off with a metal ruler and the clear coat will fill the scratched up parts nicely.
Before & After
Those looks so good in gloss. Nice work! Do you have any photos post-alcohol, but pre-gloss? The reason I asked earlier in the thread if they were already gloss is that I bought a (well-) used Hotmelt Custom Pro squash racquet (which also uses the black/yellow cosmetic of the 200G), that looked to have had most of the rubber removed, and it was gloss wherever the rubber was gone. There were still plenty of spots where there were bits of the rubber left, so I assumed that whoever owned it just peeled off the rubber as it deteriorated, but had clearly not re-glossed it himself. It didn't look like a project; it just looked like there was a nice gloss finish under the rubber paint.
I don't own any more Hotmelt tennis racquets (used to use the 300G), but I've got a bunch of old Hotmelt Jonathon Power squash racquets (which also use the black/yellow), and I'm definitely going to try this process on the ones that have deteriorating paint. Oddly, two of them have basically not peeled at all.
Dakota60
Rookie
I only have this one. For me, there were always spots around the frame that didn't come off no matter how hard or often I rubbed it off with alcohol. This was before I used the scrapping method, which was much faster and effective - still used alcohol to soften the rubber coating though, seemed to help a little. There will also be some fine scratch marks on the gloss after the rubber coat is removed so don't expect it to look smooth.
Dakota60
Rookie
Wipe it down with some alcohol for a while and scrape away. Quite therapeutic I must say.
coachrick
Hall of Fame
I've started a thread about the dissolving vintage grips. I'm thinking a "sheet" of tape(cloth?) wrapped around the entire handle, then sliced off with a razor knife will be a reasonable approach.
It's worse than the Greenie Grips of 40 years ago that left pine tar all over your hands after installation(and those were VERY popular in the shop where I worked in the '80s).
