I've been using brake cleaner to remove the undercoating, but it is taking forever due to how thick this cr@p is. Is there another way to remove it?

At over 2 bucks a can, this is going to be an expensive job just to remove this stuff.

Try a heat gun and a putty knife.

No experience with the stuff but heard others talking about aircraft stripper.
Anyone try it?

Why are you doing this??? If it is to save weight, I am guessing that the net gain will never ever come close to the effort you have to expend to get all the sealer/undercoating off. Having said that, in the places where I needed to do weld repairs I just used either a 1 inch wide wood chisel or a putty knife and scrapped if the stuff was loose as it was in most areas. Good luck.

Scaping gets a lot of it, but the contours are hard to do with a lflat blade. You can modify a chisel on the grinder. I also used stropper pads and wire brushes mounted in a drill motor. I sanded as well. I really didn't get every last bit off, but it si fairly smooth under there. Good enough for paint, IMO.

I've used the heat gun (or propane) and putty knife method. If the undercoating is already dry and brittle then just the putty knife can work well. Whatever this doesn't get will come off with the brake cleaner.

Mike,

Buy the brake cleaner by the cases. They end up a little over a dollar a can. I try not to buy tubs that have undercoating for this exact reason. There has to be some magic spray on crap that removes this stuff. Call Ziebart. They should know.


B

Mike,

If you find anything let the board know.. I would kill for this info..
I have gone through 2 cases so far.. and have a ways to go yet...

I've also been using the putty knife

share any secrets
brant

seriously, aircraft stripper is supposed to be the shit. The 356 guys use this for just about everything.
I haven't needed to do any stripping....well, I have but didn't do it yet.

Anyone here tried it?

I use the stuff to wash my face and brush my teeth. Keeps me cleeeen :finger2:

My undercoating was so old and brittle, that I could just chip it off with a flat head screwdriver. Korijo's undercoating was "better" so we used a propane torch to heat it up and then used a putty knife and stripped it off

seanery,

I've used a product sold as air craft stripper...
It is a full stripping product. Sure it will take off undercoating.. but it also takes off the factory paint and primer... I don't think this is mike muellers intention...

Also, chemical strippers are kinda dangerous in that they need to be fully neutrallized before you repaint or they can cause problems down the road.. sort of like an acid dip.....

I know I certainly don't want to remove my factory paint from the wheel wells and undercarriage..

On my car I bought an industrial heat gun and found it worked great on the interior undercoater, but still didn't phase the undercarriage without getting so hot as to bubble the factory paint also...

anybody else have any secrets?
brant

Aircraft stripper works great, unless someone has applied an asphalt based under coating, it make a big mess with that.

I ended up using an angle grinder, with a wire wheel to get the crap off.

and BTW it saves a ton of weight, I took off about 40 lbs of undercoating on my 911

here is a pic of the right front wheel well after I primed it with zinc then shot some white paint on it.

Castrol Super Clean will break it down but I had the most luck with a pressure washer with HOT water going through it. I just did it a few weeks ago. The pressure and hot water got 90% of it off. Some I had to use the solvent .

What about the sound deadening pads on the inside floorpans?
Any one with any special tricks here?
I heard somewhere that Dry Ice will essentially freeze the stuff to the point it just cracks off ?

Rich

Rich,

we use a 12$ heat gun and a puddy knife from Harbor freight. Then clean the area up with brake cleaner. The heat is how they put it down... it comes up easy.

B

harbor freight is my hero! I got my heat gun there too. After using it, my friend borrowed it and said "someone stole it".

yepp, works like a charme. make sure you get at least a dust mask or something, the tar-mat stuff will evaporate some not so nice stuff when heated up. plus, the brake cleaner will give you a nice buzz ...

i have some nice before/after pictures here:
http://www.sirandy.com/projects/20020520.asp

I tried the aviation stripper and it made a big mess. It was hard to apply and it took off the paint as well so I would not recommend it.

The method I found that worked the best…. and I should know as I have removed all the undercoating from one end of my car to the other is:


- Use a paint scrapper to remove it off of the flat areas.
- Followed by lacquer thinners and paper towels.
- Then apply good old Por-15 for rust protection.

ditto - heat gun and putty knife - worked fast and easy.

Tried and tested. Almost a decade of proven history right here.
Don't fall for the dry ice banana in the tail pipe - This thread was almost started before Eddie did that.

The factory stuff is easy to get off. Heat gun and putty knofe followed by some citrus cleaner for the remaining glue.

Now for the tar the PO used on my car for sound proofing is next to impossible ! Melts to a liquid goo when heated.

Not sure if I would rather have a heavily undercoated tub, or a rusted-beyond-repair prototype tub...



Thanks for resurrecting this one, Jim!

Somewhere on an earlier thread, someone recommended the pneumatic scraper from good ol HF.

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/spe...-kit-95826.html

Worked very well for the thick hard stuff on the floor. About an hour total.

$25.00 US.