Guys (and ladies)

As you may know, I am currently in search of rust on my 71. I am scraping up the tar mat (so far just on passenger side) as we speak. A heat gun is helping, but still a PITA.

Anyway, my plan is to get the floor completely stripped then POR-15 the heck out of it.

What about the trans tunnel and the rear deck? I still have the diamond vinyl on the trans tunnel. Is it worth taking that all off and using POR-15 under that? I guess the removal is just the console then the vinyl?

I have not even looked at the rear hatch area. Is it worth stripping that all down as well? Is there tar mat back there? (UGH)

Current photos in my gallery as I scrape.

It's not hard to remove the riser vinyl. Just take a look and see how it's held up. Mine had absolutely no rust and yours may be the same.

As far as the transmission tunnel depending on how far up the rust went on the floors you may or may not need to mess with it. I had a little rust on my floors and my tranny tunnel was completely rust free. I'lll probably POR it anyway jsut becuase I've already started stripping and sandblasting it. It's a bit of a pain to inspect it becuase ther's a thick matting covering the tunnel under the vinyl - it's hard to remove without destroying it.

In the rear hatch check the rear hatch deck panel and the spare tire well. It may need some work. The area under the tar (on the hatch area floor) may rust because there are lots of "wrinkles" in the metal that flood with water under the matting. Mine has some surface rust but not too bad. But again I'll probably POR it anyway and apply new soundproofing.

Sounds like you're about where I am right now except mine is a little more stripped down. GOod luck! Remember POR15 requires a temperature of 75F so depending on where you are you may not be able to paint it for a few months.

Michael

Originally posted by derk

Guys (and ladies)

As you may know, I am currently in search of rust on my 71. I am scraping up the tar mat (so far just on passenger side) as we speak. A heat gun is helping, but still a PITA.

(snip by Carl)

I have not even looked at the rear hatch area. Is it worth stripping that all down as well? Is there tar mat back there? (UGH)

Hi Derk: If you're having difficultly removing the tarmat, heat it more. As others reminded us earlier, you don't want to completely melt it to a liquid state, but the warmer you get it, the easier it will scrape up. I think you'd have to really try hard to MELT the tarmat. Mine never came close to melting, though it did get very hot. When I did mine, the air temp was in the mid 70's, AIR you mentioned your garage is in the 50's. You may need to apply more heat or to heat from below (the metal of the floorpan) as well as the tarmat itself from above to facilitate complete SOFTENING (not melting) of the material. I can't emphasize enough how EASY it came up for me using this method. Literally under an hour for one floorpan.

Regarding the rear areas of the car. Anywhere rust is hiding, it is worth it to fix before it ruins the car. The only way to know the condition of your car is to look. Pull up the carpet and examine. Keep fingers crossed while doing so and hopefully you won't find much of a problem there!

I will try adding more heat....thanks for help

Derk -

I spent many hours scraping like you until I got some air tools, which included an air chisel. The air chisel will take the tar matting up in no time, no heat required.

If you have a good air compressor I'd recommend buying a cheap air chisel.

I haven't removed my vinyl covering on my trans tunnel, but I have chipped at some of the tar matting underneath the vinyl. The metal on mine is not rusty.

Chad

Originally posted by redline240z

Derk -

I spent many hours scraping like you until I got some air tools, which included an air chisel. The air chisel will take the tar matting up in no time, no heat required.

If you have a good air compressor I'd recommend buying a cheap air chisel.

Chad

Of course even a cheap air chisel is more expensive than the heat gun he already has. Kinda like using a machine gun to kill flys in my opinion.

I found that a simple paint scraper botht he 1-1/2" and the 3" with an edge put on it via my bench grinder provided an excellent removal tool. You're basically looking to put an /_ edge on it.

I would simply find an edge of the tar mat, push the scraper with the ground edge up underneath it and the tar mat would lift right off. There were a few times when I needed to use a small hammer to "tap" helped, but for the most part just chipped it right off.

Yes, heat will help, but that will also reactivate the adhesive behind it.

As far as an air-chisel set up on an air hammer, be careful as it wouldn't be hard to dent the metal. If you are going to go this way use the wide blade chisel and not the smaller blades and adjust your pressure down. You don't need the full strength of most air hammers to do this.

2¢

Regarding the tar mat in the hatch area.

I agree with Michael Perdue. With all the wrinkling of the metal, the tar-paper and the possibilities of water / moisture having gotten back there in 30+ years, I would remove the tar mat just to be sure that there is no hidden rust just waiting to bite you later.

Yes it is a PITA to remove, but which is worse, removing tar paper or welding in replacement sheet metal?

You will find that Datsun placed the tar-paper directly over unpainted galvanized (and low level galvanize) metal. Those wrinkles and moisture seepage will have undoubtedly allowed rust, whether surface or heavy to develop.

2¢

I was looking around and found this http://www.invention.com/mattfield.htm

I had used a heated razor knife along time ago and dont know where to find one but this is close. It would make fast work of tarpaper.

Cover the Tat mat with dry ice, wait 15 minutes, smack it with a hammer.

It shatters like plate glass

Victor is probably right - I did mine last winter in the

unheaded garage. Used the hand chisel method -

It would start to peel a little then break off - It went

amazingly quick.

- Jeff

I'll bite....where does one obtain dry ice these days?

Open your phone book and look. If that fails I would look for someone who packs food for shipping. They use dry ice for shipping frozen foods.