undercoat removal

Taking out the gas tank is a big help also.

 

I must admit I have never tried kerosene. My impression with any solvent is that there is always some residue that remains behind. And you have to content with that odor. Not to mention the fire hazard. The stripeze that I mentioned about is in a gel so you can slop it around and it stays put. At the end you can wash it off with detergent and water and you're done. That washes away most of the residues that otherwise would remain in the nooks and crannies. If you collect it all underneath like I mentioned, you can do the work in your garage and you wont have to go outside. Once you scrape away most of the undercoating to begin with, the rest is getting down to the bare metal. I think that one thing we all agree on is that it is a messy job. But once done, it's done! And if you POR it, you wont have to do it again.

 

I'm in this process right now also. I was just going to clean it off for now and paint over it until I could do it later. Well years of a leaky motor I guess soften alot of the undercoating and I used a little puty knife and scrape about half of it off prety easily. I used low odor mineral spirits to soften mine, not as bad of a smell. This is definitely the worse job yet!!!

 

Not true, based on the fact that water is also a solvent.

 

I removed the undercoating from my 72 RS. I used the kerosene method. It worked fanstasic! I tried the steamcleaner didn't work that great, got just as much off with my own pressure washer. But the kerosene did a good job, could scrape most of it off with a razor knife. Wish I would have done this way a couple of years ago when I did my other car. Thanks for the trick guys. Jim

 

I used a heat gun to heat the stuff, and then a putty knife to scrape. Then I wiped off what was left with a kerosene soaked rag.

 

I tried soaking it with about everything. The most softening I found came from brake fluid. I used a heat gun as well, if you get the stuff hot enough it will almost fall off in big chunks. Finally, I used a wire brush wheel on my die grinder and got it REALLY clean. Good luck, it is a tough, dirty job, but it is part of any resto or good restification.

 

Try easyoff oven cleaner

 

As I read these posts I think about the disposal of all this gunk that I'd be removing. What do you do with it? Even if you catch it in a large flat container (great idea!) then what, you can't throw it in the trash, can you?