Hey all-

I'm feeling ambitious tonight- I have a CAV Discovision "Coal Miner's Daughter" and would like to remove the dead side coating to see what's i there. I did a Google search but found nothing on tips- any suggestions? Are there any more 'usual' side findings?

I used a bit of rubbing alcohol. I do about 1/3 of the disc at a time, allow the alcohol to loosen the coating and then wipe it off immediately. Keep the alcohol away from the label (the ink will run), and away from the edges of the disc (it will cause the aluminum to blister). You also must not let the alcohol sit on the surface any longer than absolutely necessary as it will cloud the plastic very quickly.

It's best to practice on a junk disc until you have your technique down before you try it on a disc you value. Although "Coal Miners Daughter" discs are a dime a dozen.

The alcohol/lacquer clouds the plastic because you haven't gotten all the lacquer coating off and it rehardens as the alcohol evaporates, so if it clouds, use more alcohol to wipe it off, constantly using fresh towels so you don't redeposit the plastic lacquer coating. High volume isopropyl alcohols like 90% work best to melt the lacquer. As Blaine said, work in small sections at a time and use lots of alcohol and lots of clean towels. I've cleaned over 200 dead sides and it does take some practice. Also, of you get the lacquer on the other side of the disc, which does happen, use another clean towel with alcohol to clean it off. And don't worry, the fogging is not permanent - again, more alcohol on a clean towel will remove it.

Thanks guys! I have a really good eye for detail and the patience of Lindsay Lohan's probation officer, so I'm confident I won't eff it up. The tip about no alcohol on the sides was especially helpful, thanks very much for that.

I will post my findings once I uncover it!

I used Novis polish #2 to remove the coating off my discovision disc. Took a few treatments but worked fine and no risk of damage. My dead side ended up being from Felini's Casanova.

Done! It was remarkably easier to do thank I thought- 10 minutes total. However, I shoulda used a softer cloth cuz I left some hairline scratches on the dead side. No problem though, cuz I won't be selling it.

The dead side? Side 7 of a General Motors training video, this side is about their parts department. Blaine, I looked on your Discovision site and didn't find a corresponding title. And, the audio is only on the left channel.

I have been reluctant to add all of the GM discs to the DiscoVision web site because I have no catalog or listing of all available titles. If someone has a complete listing of discs in the GM catalog, I'll add them to the site.

I don't blame you. Is the left-channel-only audio common to GM discs? There were frames displayed indicating a test and to press "0" to continue once the test was taken.

i had one once that left was english and right was spanish, it was a corvette disc by discovision.

I have some GM Canada discs and the left is English and the right is French

We did the same on our 1980 CAV edition of Coal Miner's Daughter. The dead side contains Side 1 of Slap Shot!

I just discovered "dead sides" today and the rubbing alcohol trick. I did wonder if Novus #2 would be effective. Thanks for your report! I've wondered if alcohol could be damaging; I guess it IS if you don't get the location and timing exactly right. (That's enough to scare me.) Novus #2 doesn't scare me.