undercoating removal

[smhigh]

A friend had a guy come out and blasted the entire undercarriage with dry ice!

Worked fantastic!!!

http://www.dryiceinfo.com/cleaning.htm

[Roberts68]

All the ideas mentioned are proven, nobody has mentioned oven cleaner yet.
The stuff is toxic and nasty but usually gets mentioned when undercoating removal is brought up. It works, but you do not want that junk dripping on your tender parts. ( We are made primarily of tender parts when it comes to things intended to dissolve charred organics. )

I used it up in my rear wheelwells and the stuff wiped out like melted butter compared to smearing, melting and genereally gumming up with wire wheel efforts.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by Roberts68

All the ideas mentioned are proven, nobody has mentioned oven cleaner yet.
The stuff is toxic and nasty but usually gets mentioned when undercoating removal is brought up. It works, but you do not want that junk dripping on your tender parts. ( We are made primarily of tender parts when it comes to things intended to dissolve charred organics. )

I used it up in my rear wheelwells and the stuff wiped out like melted butter compared to smearing, melting and genereally gumming up with wire wheel efforts.

using an acid product doing overhead work is never a good idea. plus acids will leach out and cause rusting.

[Roberts68]

Originally Posted by Vince@MSperfab

using an acid product doing overhead work is never a good idea. plus acids will leach out and cause rusting.

Fairly true, working with any chemicals overhead really... The main ingredient that gives oven cleaner it's action is Lye, or Sodium Hydroxide which is on the other end of the PH scale from acid, as one of the stronger bases coming in at 13 on a scale of 0 (Acid) to 14 (Base). Anything on the far ends away from 7 will get your attention on bare skin.

I can see your point, it wouldn't be something to take lightly and maybe I shouldn't have brought it up. As someone else mentioned elbow grease is an alternative.

[FlameBroiled]

With old dried out under coating, I have found using a air chisel with the pressure turned down works wonders. Just round off the corners of the chisel first!!!

[RdHuggr68]

I got about 80% of the undercoating out with a couple of putty knife's. One was pretty rigid and one had some flex to it. I found a few surprises but they will get cut out when the mini-tubs go in. I will get some 3M pads tomorrow for the grinder and get the remainder of it. It was a lot easier than I thought.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by Roberts68

Fairly true, working with any chemicals overhead really... The main ingredient that gives oven cleaner it's action is Lye, or Sodium Hydroxide which is on the other end of the PH scale from acid, as one of the stronger bases coming in at 13 on a scale of 0 (Acid) to 14 (Base). Anything on the far ends away from 7 will get your attention on bare skin.

I can see your point, it wouldn't be something to take lightly and maybe I shouldn't have brought it up. As someone else mentioned elbow grease is an alternative.

once you get under it it does come of easily. Honestly I stopped using chemicals years ago. Strippers too. With my little reciprocating saw maybe 30 mins each side to go to bare metal.

[RdHuggr68]

Originally Posted by Vince@MSperfab

once you get under it it does come of easily. Honestly I stopped using chemicals years ago. Strippers too. With my little reciprocating saw maybe 30 mins each side to go to bare metal.

Its a messy job, I wore goggles and had to lay under the car to do it, plus the rear end is still in the car which is another obstacle.

[southview]

I put mine on a lift, wore a poncho and used a pressure washer. Stripped it clean. I think I used a 25 degree tip. took about 45 minutes to do the whole underside. You will get wet!!

[ironworks]

The tricky part with under coating is the mess you have to clean up afterward. When it cold you can chip it off better. We usually mount the body on the rotisserie and turn it up side down and coat the hard to get under coating with diesel fuel and let it sit and scrap it off a little while later. We do it over a cheap tarp we can later throw away. Then send it out to get blasted in the hard to get areas. Seems to be about the most time sensitive manner we have found. Pressure washer seemed to make a whole other mess that now has to be cleaned up.