HELP!! interior: glue/foam/tar stuff, how do u get if off???

[blueovalboy]

i've got a 67 baja with a 72 body. the inside of the car was stripped when i got it, but every inch is covered with spray glue and foam and bits of vinyl and that tar based sound deadening crap. i've tryed sand blasting and it doesn;t work, mineral spirts kind of works, but u have to sit there and scrub it forever. how do u get it all off?????

[JordanK]

Wire wheel on a grinder or buffer.

[vdubyah73]

the tar will chip off with a stiff outty knife type scraper and a hammer. use it like a chisel.

Bill

[RomanBug]

A heat gun does a great job of softening up the adhesive on the tar board. Let it get warm, and use a putty knife to scrap it off. Same technique works great on old undercoating in the fenderwells. Paint thinner and a red 3m scuff pad makes the glue from the headliner come off a little easier.

[baileyuph]

We spray a lot of contact cement that is used to hold foam to metal and to get that type of glue off, we used a remover made by the same company that makes the glue. For example, Dap makes contact cement and they also make a thinner/remover.

Weldwood, is another glue/thinner that is available.

For removing the undercoating, I believe you said was also on there, a good auto paint store would know what to use there.

Frustrating isn't it!

Doyle

[Raymondo]

It's a pain in the ass, isn't it?

The only method I've found that really works is manual labor, although if you can wire wheel it off, that will make things a lot quicker. If you dont mind a mess, aircraft stripper will turn anything on the surface of the metal to goop, but it will leave you another mess to clean up, which arguably, is far more work.

The roof is the worst though, by far, because all the little bits of glue come off and you get it in your hair, clothing, etc. Your arm gets pretty tired too.


I know there are some products on the market that claim to remove glue, but from what I've seen of them, they don't work well.


EDIT: I missed that part about the undercoating, but I find that heating it up with a propane torch, and using a really stiff paint scraper is the CLEANEST way to get undercoating off. A wire wheel works, but it melts the undercoating into a sludge which smears all over the wheel, the floor, and other parts of the car.

[rsb]

I just finished up removing the tar and glue and gunk out of my 78' Brat this weekend. What I found worked best was scraping it with a 5 in 1 painters tool, and a junky hunting knife. Every once in a while you need to wirewheel and sharpen your tools or it really slows things down. Wearing gloves and safty glasses is also a good idea. Im still in the process of wirewheeling all the rust out, but when you hit the tarry goo it makes a real mess. The best advice is work on it in shifts like work on it for a couple hours go do something for 30min-couple hours and soforth as it gets really tiring and tedious.

[Piledriver]

Over on the Pelican Parts 914 board, an air chisel was suggested for the tar (same stuff) NOT heating it up is recommended, as it simply chips off if cool.

[Turvis]

There is a new product on the market. I do not sell them nor do I own a bit of the company that manufactures them. Iceotronic cleaner.. In short it is a pressure washer which uses dry ice to freeze what ever and then remove it with the pressure. Paint? Took less then two hours to completley remove all traces of paint in every nook and cranny. The undercoating goo it was a dream come true. What it does is makes the surface hard as a rock at 79 degrees below and the water mist just blows it away. leaves the metal stripped and clean. But watch out it will remove everything that is not metal, rubber, bondo, plastic, you name it and it's gone. I think they have them for rent now days. I bought one to see if I could keep up with marine growth on underwater equipment works bitchen.

[JSMskater]

learned this trick from the ricer people

get some dry ice from your local albertsons or vons and sprinkle it on the tar boards where you cant get it off. the extreme cold will cause it to shatter when you hit it with a mallet or chisel it. it comes off MUCH easier than chiseling it by hand, and it is a lot less messy and smelly than a heat gun.

[MinamiKotaro]

This is EXTREMELY dangerous and you should never try it.

Toluene melts the stuff with ease. However, toluene is an extraordinary fire hazard and you should not breathe it or get it on your skin.

[67vdubya]

I worked in an aviation interior shop and the best stuff even more than toluene is Naptha look in lows or home depot in the thinner/paint section. It's almost (or maybe is) the same as Coleman lantern fuel. Just soak a rag pretty good with it wipe it all down and go over with a scraper and it comes off super easy . It doesn't get to goofy with this stuff! I'm striping my interior now to paint it

[Piledriver]

Finally got a chance to try the air chisel method...

I cleaned off the last 3/4 of the floor on my square last week after doing rust repair on the battery area.
Tried a good putty knife manually around the edges, but it was in pretty good shape.

Air chisel had it tar-free in under 10 minutes, 99% or better removal. spent 90% of the time waiting for my tiny little pancake compressor to catch up.

It was bordering on... fun...
I cannot stress how hard it rocked vs. scraping and solvent wiping.

I still needed solvent for the marvelous still-gooey-after-30-years silver seal sealer used in places, but 95% of the area was ready to wire brush in 10 minutes..

The rust under the tar helped some, but it literally blasted off stuck-on tar stuff faster than I could clean up to be able to see.
I may do the Pile the coming weekend.

[hpw]

like this? looks pretty effective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJRf6zrulC4

[Piledriver]

It would probably work great, the tar shatters if you hit it with enough velocity.

But, the dull air chisel tends to allow you to peel off great big chunks that are relatively easy to clean up.
Needle scaler would probably require a face mask and eye protection for the dust it created.
(not that that's a bad idea anyway)