Original Underseal

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Hello Everybody,

Presently, the body shop that is undertaking the restoration of my car is having a 'heck' of a time removing what appears to be the original underseal for my Canadian 1972 3.0CS. Fortunately, the substance appears to have saved the car from much ugliness, however, it needs to be removed to unsure the metal is in good shape and the car be taken down to metal. The owner of the body shop I am using, who specializes in high end restoration of older English cars (mostly e types) indicated to me that he has never some across this substance before and has tried most everything, alas to no avail. I took a piece with me and will attempt to describe it: it is black on the top but white on the bottom and feels something rubbery.

What do you think? If they have to physical remove the underseal with chisels and the like the cost will be very painful. I am hoping to find a solvent to break it (but not the metal) down.

Andrew
 
Many and varied are the sagas of removing such coatings. The internal stuff on the floors can be a challenge as well. It sounds like you've got a third party product on your underside, though that's hard to say for sure since my exposure to unrusted coupe floors is limited. There are air or electric powered oscillating hammer chisels which can make the process a bit easier, but it's still a chore. Solvents can work on the tar based stuff, but it's smelly and messy and nobody's favorite task. Mind your lungs. A heat gun can soften it so it is more easily removed, but that isn't any fun either. I've used both radiant panels and hot air types to remove decades of paint from houses.

There are a few operations that can use dry ice to blast off the undercoating, much like media blasting. Tthe dry ice freezes the coating making it brittle before chipping it off. Some have added crushed dry ice to the floors by hand, then use familiar mechanical means to chip it off. A compromise, but somewhat of an improvement over doing it warm.

Good luck.

Ian
 
EasyOff oven cleaner will remove undercoating but if left on too long it can soften the original khaki colored paint on the underside. Sounds like you have an aftermarket undercoating.
 
I used a propane torch, scraper, and wipe w/lacquer thinner.

I heard dry ice on top, and it will harden up and you can chip it off, but haven't tried that method.
 
I believe the original coating was sprayed molten nylon, I only remove it from a rusty area back to an inch or so of rust free metal as it is just so hard to remove and impossible to recreate in the workshop situation, if it ain't broke............ Pat
 
After doing a few of these cars as well as lots of 2002's, I can tell you that the factory undercoating will not really come off with media blasting. But I have not tried any of the new dustless blasting but I really don't think that it would do much for the undercoating either. Buy a cheap oscillating tool , get a few of the wide blades, a pair of those energy absorbing gloves, a good face mask and away you go. It is a painful, messy long job to get all of the undercoating off . Once I have gotten as much as possible off, out comes the grinders with a different assortments of wire wheels. I get those cheaper 4 1/2 " ones from Harbour freight when they are on sale, get 3 or 4 . When one gets hot, move to the next. I have tried the dry ice method, doesn't really work, heat makes a real mess. This is one job that you just have to get down and dirty and get it done.

When you start removing it, you may be shocked to find out the metal condition under what you thought was really good!
 
I used a wire wheel on an angle grider to scrub it off. Scraped by hand first where it already had begun to seperate.
Messy job but worth it. Wear one of these full face masks and cover everything around you; floor, car lift etc tools, cabinets.
I think the rubberised stuff tends to soften/ melt a bit by the heat of the wire wheel and when flyng across your shop it sticks to amything.
I found numerous dime sized brown spots underneath that i would never want to remain on a "finished" car.

Erik.

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