undercoating removal
 

I am about to start removing the undercoating from my rear wheel wells and could use some advice on what works best to remove the undercoating.

I use a propane torch and putty knife. Heat it just enough to soften it. Make sure the gas tank is out of the car.

Don

I've heard of people using a needle scaler to.

did the whole underside of my car a few yrs back.after 40 + yrs it was kinda dried out so i chipped away most of it with putty knives and chisels.finished it of with wire brushes and heavy scotch bite discs.i epoxied it and rhino lined it in the end. be prepared to buy a lot of elbow grease.

I had really good luck using a gasket scraper. It was so old and dried it just chipped off. I've tried it before with heating it and in some ways it was harder to do.

I don't know how you feel about chemicals but a high grade paint degreaser works really good. A lot of the old undercoating is tar based and melts when you spray a little degreaser or lacquer thinner on it. Go over it with a red scotch brite while its wet and you'll get it really clean without putting a bunch of unnecessary scratches in the metal from a scraper. The key is keeping the solvent from evaporating while your doing it.

Heat gun and scrapers...........sucks to be you! :mock: :D

Depending on age and material type and electric drill motor with a medium wire wheel can be useful.

If its factory undercoating that is hard and thick a small reciprocating saw with a wide blade with the end of the blade cut flat works well. Once you get under it it breaks off clean and in chunks. Should be paint under that.

If it the new rubberized stuff, chemical methods above work well.

What Don said.... and this is assuming the car is stripped of interior etc... in other words -- you're down to a bare body. It's also well worth doing this on a body rotisserie! Then you can stand - the crap doesn't get on you - and when you get low on the body you just sit on a 5 gallon home depot bucket and work away. You'll need a few different sized scrapers - and sometimes the more flexible ones work and sometimes you need them a bit stiffer -- so beg or borrow or buy some different versions. I take them to the Burr King and take the sharp corners off them so they don't dig in to the metal.

Make sure you have a couple fire extinguishers right there at your feet -- or use a 5 and have a couple rags in it with water because sometimes the tar stuff catches fire a little bit.

You just heat a small area at a time and scrape away. Seems daunting - but it doesn't take all that long and is really satisfying when you get all that nasty old stuff off.

Also helps if you bribe your friends with beer... :superhack:

Thanks everybody for the suggestions, I tried a spot yesterday and it is still real pliable so I will probably hit it 1 hour a night and see how it goes. Greg, the beer sounds like a good idea when can you get here! :cheers: