undercoating removal

[RobertH]

Is it possible to remove old undercoating from the underside of a ?What type of solvent would you use and how do you apply it?

thanks

RobertH

[ZmeFly]

Is some elbow grease, a scraper and a heat gun.

[drunkenmaster]

search the boards, im sure its been covered many times by others and myself on our experiences.

[Ed]

Robert, I hope you don't have to lay under your car while removing undercoating. It's a messy, nasty job.

[26ounce]

I lay under mine for the most part. If you are going to do it from underneath get some safety glasses first! :dead:

I tried the heater method but being an impatient bugger I wasn't happy with the speed of the process. I did work out a much faster method in the end, but as with all short cuts this one has it's risks.

What I did was get a woodworking chisel with a blade about 1 cm wide, the cheaper the better. Don't heat the undercoat at all, in fact the colder the better. Scrape the undercoat off with the chisel using a low angle of attack and a rapid back and forth motion.

In my case the undercoat came off very quickly in smallish flakes. It worked most effectively when the undercoat is somewhat brittle.

Of course the main problem with this method is that you occasionally scratch the metal, but if you go easy on the chisel it will be negligable. In fact it will probably be better if you are going to POR-15 the metal afterwards.

And for the leftover residue I bought a can of enamel reducer which worked a treat apart from slowly dissolving my scotch-brite scourers.