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  #1  
Old April 4th 2006, 17:12
zeroaxe zeroaxe is offline
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Some kind of tar on floor pan/chassis...

Ok, So here I am with my dilema. The chassis and floor pan is coated in some kind of tar or something(*might* be stonechip, but I kinda doubt it, as it does not have that 'grain-y' finish). You might think that I should leave it like that, as it is properly 'sealed' the chassis against rust. Problem being that I managed to remove SOME of it, and found that there are little rust spots. So I dont believe the coating was a good idea.

Now, here is my REAL problem... It is a real PITA to try and get off. I tried using one of those wire wheels on a grinded, but instead of 'cipping' it off, it just kinda melts it and smears it along. I have tried paint remover, but it only seems to 'attack' the very top of the coating, the rest seems to be untouched. So I am not convinced that paint stripper is going to remove it all. My next resort was a heat gun and a scraper. This did help a little, but it is going to take AGES to get most of it off.
I now know why my employer didnt want to get back to me with a price on how much it will be to sandblast at my work. He knew that this pan had that stuff on it(I bought it from him). And today he mentioned something that sandlbasting will not move the stuff without something being done first(removing MOST of that crap).

So to the people out there that have had similar products on their chassis, what have you done to remove it? I would appreciate any/all help...... Go on! Let me learn from your mistakes
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  #2  
Old April 4th 2006, 22:33
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wrenchnride247 wrenchnride247 is offline
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zeroaxe, is there anywhere near by that can dip your pan in large vat of chemical stripper? If you are replacing the floor pan halves, cut those out and just worry about stripping the rest of the chassis. Have you tried aircraft stripper? Thats just the name of it, i use it to remove powdercoating. You can get it at paint and body supply houses. Hope this helps .
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  #3  
Old April 4th 2006, 22:42
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MikeVW MikeVW is offline
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Are we talking about the inside or outside? I used a wire wheel on both sides. I burned through a total of 4 of them. Ended up with those little wires EVERYWHERE! Eastwood says if the coating is thumbnail imprintable you can use this stuff http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...emType=PRODUCT

Then there is this stuff http://www.classicchromeco.com/por15order.htm look at the bottom of the page.

I have not used either of these but I will next time.

Mike
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  #4  
Old April 5th 2006, 01:00
EASY RIDER EASY RIDER is offline
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I have never tried this but I have heard that the inner tar board can be removed from the floor pan with dry ice. You might need a lot of dry ice but it may help in the hard to remove spots. You are supposed to put the dry ice on and let it sit. Cover it if you can. After it sits for a little bit you may be able to just chip it off. The cold temperature is supposed to make tar board and maybe your under coating brittle enough to easily remove.
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  #5  
Old April 5th 2006, 07:17
fastdub fastdub is offline
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when i had to remove the tar board from my floorpan, i found out, after trying everything else, that the only way to really get it off is to cut it/chip it off then go over the whole lot with paint stripper and slowly wipe it away

it takes ages

so dont think its a five minute job
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  #6  
Old April 5th 2006, 15:14
zeroaxe zeroaxe is offline
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wrenchnride247,

Unfortunately I dont know of such a service here(close to me) in France. I will ask the wife to help me if she has got a minute, as my (reading)French is just about non-existant(heck, I can barely get along speaking French!) to see if she can help me trace down such a company. The other problem that I have got at the moment, is that my current employer seems 'scared' to share too much info with me. He is a VW-nut too, that is his business. But I get the idea that he might think I want to open my own business and be his competition... He is a super nice guy, but these last two months or so, I get mixed vibes from him and his wife(it's their business), and I am afraid to say that I might be without a job for the second summer in a row end of June...... So getting him to 'reveal' where he gets his supplies from is difficult(it is extremely difficult to find a 'normal' paint supply store here<closeby> in France)

<hint hint> If there are French members active on here, would you perhaps be able to help?

MikeVW,
I will have a look into the products you mentioned. I might just be in luck finding a supplier in France to supply these things.

EASY RIDER,
Thanks for your input too. I actually forgot to ask the wife if she has got an idea where I might be able to find dry ice(local ice cream supply store, grocery sotre etc).

fastdub,
I have been thinking about the very same thing today. I can either try and 'chip' it off until there is only a VERY thin coat left, apply paint stripper onto the rest and power wash/wife it off, *or* once there is only a thin coat left, see if my employer will THEN give me a price to sandblast the rest off. I just wish I could get the thing dipped in acid or something to get it properly clean!


Thanks fellas for the input! If there is someone else whose mistakes I can learn from, please feel free to share them
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  #7  
Old April 5th 2006, 18:31
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Steve C Steve C is offline
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Hi

I used some bitumen chassis paint on my old bug, real heavy duty stuf, only problem was when I had a fuel leak it washed off. What Im suggesting is try all the stuff you have in your shed, kero, turps, thinners etc until yo find something that works.

Steve
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  #8  
Old April 5th 2006, 21:39
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wrenchnride247 wrenchnride247 is offline
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zeroaxe,

I didn't know you were in europe. It may be difficult to find strong enough strippers over there. I think they may have more restrictions on public sale of the "good stuff" . Not positive though.
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1970 T1 W/MassIVe 2913cc RAT/?EFI? w/direct fire (very soon) and 915 trans

1962 SC 1776cc SP 944NA brakes, 993 wheels

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  #9  
Old April 6th 2006, 01:48
zeroaxe zeroaxe is offline
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Steve C,

You might be onto something here. Isnt it funy that (sometimes) the answers we are looking for is right in front of us? I shall see if I can give it a sot tonight.

wrenchnride247,

You are right on the money there. When I lived in the UK(unfortunately I wasnt back into Bugs then), I could just about find anything/everything that I was looking for. But here in France EVERYTHING is always so difficult. The regulations etc is real tight, and the 'normal' stuff you might be able to find somewhere else, is real difficult to find here.....
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  #10  
Old April 11th 2006, 20:19
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VWader04 VWader04 is offline
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I used chizels to remove both the tarboard and the undercoating....undercoating flaked off pretty easy
tarboards...came off in strips...the remainder chipped away easily.

takes time but got done fairly easy.
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  #11  
Old April 13th 2006, 21:15
THEBURG THEBURG is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fastdub
when i had to remove the tar board from my floorpan, i found out, after trying everything else, that the only way to really get it off is to cut it/chip it off then go over the whole lot with paint stripper and slowly wipe it away

it takes ages

so dont think its a five minute job
Yep, that's what we did with a bug we are fixing up for a raffle. We used screw drivers and a rather dull chisel. I still have the blister on the palm of my hand 3 weeks later! Try tapping on the stuff with a dull chisel, it breaks it loose from the metal, making it easier to remove. Good luck!

Henry
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  #12  
Old April 14th 2006, 17:41
zeroaxe zeroaxe is offline
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Well honestly, the only luck I am having at the moment is with the electric heat gun and a scraper. It took me an hour and half to do 1/4 of the floor pan!!!! Guess the rest is going to be MUCH fun! And it seems that my suspicions were right. My boss didnt get back to me with a price to sandblast the chassis, because he knew what was painted onto it. Now that I am talking about getting this crap off, he seems more willing to get me a price on the sandblasting! Hmmmm..... Why not just tell me in the first place that I need to remove the stuff first? That is how misunderstandings/miscommunications cause unnesesary problems....
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  #13  
Old April 14th 2006, 23:31
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MikeVW MikeVW is offline
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If an electric headgun works would a propane or acetylene torch work better?

Mike
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  #14  
Old April 15th 2006, 00:50
zeroaxe zeroaxe is offline
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Hi Mike,

Not really, but I see your logic! The problem seems to be that when I heat it too much, it kinda melts(which is normal I think ) and you scrape it, it then smears into a very fine film or tar. You take the majority off, but there is that little bit that stays behind. If I warm it up just enough, I can scrape it quite clean. I recon that is the reason why it took me that long to do so little.

The other reason is I dont have a Oxy set-up If I had, I would probably cut the floor out, lol.

Hopefully today I can get some more done.
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  #15  
Old April 16th 2006, 15:17
Bullyboy Bullyboy is offline
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I found it works best if you heat the scraper, not the tar.
Then it comes off in bigger sections because you are slicing it off.
If you heat the tar it just turns into mush and globs up.
This works good to get tarboards off in one piece if you have a long scraper.
Then you just have to clean up with laquer thinner, acetone, varsol, etc.
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