Guidance re: opening laptop to remove and clean the cooling fan

Hi Earlier thread helped a lot, with great suggestions and a link to a good video. All along I had been thinking this was a Microsoft-induced issue.
(My original post is here but not required to see it for this new question:
Older HP Win 10 laptop running hot, what processes to turn off)
I viewed a videos on similar machines, a pictorial tutorial, and Plankton's video for my exact model; all this helped a lot. I only got as far as removing drives and memory before I realized I didn't want to proceed until I acquired more materials including a good thermal paste like one offered by Benlimanto. I cleaned the intake vent and after many days I can tell it helped a lot (more than I thought, initially), so thank you to every participant! Ed, you were right.

It would have been easy for me to just clean the vent and I'm familiar with fans and what to do / not to do, but I pressed on further until I realized I was in over my head at that point. But I think the fan assembly should be thoroughly cleaned on a (how old is this unit?) 9+ year old HP DV7-7030us i7 laptop which otherwise runs well. I like the PC or I would not fool with it, and I do have a newer HP but this is my daily driver and I like to take care of things.

My main question is regarding all the little gray tapes joining various parts to other parts or chassis edges. In the videos, the servicers just toss them aside but I don't know what they are or what to replace them with. Are they normally re-useable? The other question I had appears to be answered in tutorials, but I just wanted to verify that isopropyl 91% or better is the best stuff to remove the original thermal paste. I use isopropyl a lot in my other activities and keep 99% on hand. That's all I have for now. Image is borrowed from a video..... Cheers & Thanks, Don (this is a great forum!!)

Hi Lance. I have no idea what I’m looking for, really, and they probably won’t. Do you have a name for it? Thanks

Ok, fair and good. Coffee filters are a great idea. I always use 99% alcohol on things I do, I agree less than 91% is not good.

Honestly, with the red type and quotes I didn’t see the link as a link; I probably thought of it as a shout-out so I was still scratching my head bald. Since I first noticed this in the videos I saw (and also noticed that the tapes were silver/gray in color) I’ve wondered what this is exactly and why they are there (in the case of the fan cover, probably to keep the cover on). I thought maybe it is to keep parts from shifting and maybe it is but there was not an explanation to be found anywhere that I looked. The servicers didn’t mention it that I can recall. So naturally I wanted to be able to duplicate this as much as possible if I was going to disassemble and reassemble something as complicated as a laptop computer. I had not planned on doing this again, but who knows and nonetheless I still wanted to do it correctly. So I can see that you guys are recommending reinforced package shipping tape. It’s not precisely what was there before (with very tight filaments) but at least It is something which could work. It is very unlikely my local Walmart which is a small store in the southern most part of my county would have the super narrow tape (I get pi*s*d every time I go there) and in fact I’d be surprised if any of them did but I will be checking. I don’t think the stuff cuts length-wise very well. If anyone else has a better suggestion I would certainly appreciate it, thanks much.

OK. Looks like a narrower tape is what they used but if I can cut this down the middle on a paper cutter that would work. I just didn't really understand the purpose of taping components to one another inside a case but there are a good number of tapes in the PC. Wasn't sure if there might be some electronic purpose I wasn't understanding. Thanks, lots of big stores around if I don't order it from W.M.