Removing tar?paint, Z barr?

[v12horse]

I have a 260z and it was Z barred before I bought it. I guess it had tar and other things put behind the panals to prevent rust. This is all good and dandy, but in the process they put this suff on my firewall and on the rest of the engine bay making me never want to show off the engine because of the ugliness. I want to remove the stuff from this area because the original paint is still lusterous underneath. If I did remove it, would it rust easily even though all of the paint would be there?

Thank you

-Ben

[2ManyZs]

It could still rust, especially if there has been moisture trapped inside the frame rails etc... by the undercoating.

FWIW, Eastwoods has a fairly good undercoating remover, if you are trying to save the paint underneath, I'd give that a try. It's a two part system, you use one aerosol to remover the heavy stuff, and then another to remove the tar remnants that will end up just smearing around... It's supposed to be safe to use on paints, and I used some on mine with the factory undercoating and it left the paint in good shape. It's a bit expensive, but better than scraping if you are trying to save the paint...

www.eastwoodcompany.com

[Victor Laury]

Your local hardware store will have a product known as Goof-off. It's a Naptha based cleaner that may cut the undercoating and not the paint

[v12horse]

I just started the project of taking the undercoating off and what I found to be the most helpful was the Nevr-Dull. It is a cloth type deal that has petroleum in it and you just wipe it on the surface you want to clean. It took the z-barr right off. I bought the Goof off and it actually did remove some of the paint. Thanks for the ideas. The engine bay is not show quality, but it is looking better every time I clean it. I will post some pics of the before and after.

-Ben

[EScanlon]

Try good old Mineral Spirits. Also known as plain Paint Thinner (for oil based paints).

You'd be surprised at the amount of goop you can get off with that stuff and rarely will it hurt a paint job. If it does, then the paint was shot to begin with.

Also works as a good basic Wax and Grease remover.

2¢