Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

[Keith Bramhill (47685)]

Gentlemen: Trying to detail and clean my 66 undercarriage and frame(Body-on). I have 39 yrs of TAR (dealer installed on April 21, 1966 @ Luby Chevrolet, CO.) grime, grease, light scaling, etc. I've been going two weekends now using a heat gun and Varsol solvent and a putty scraper on the fiberglass floorboards, etc....one little area looks like factory now but "Is there a easier way"??

Has anyone tried a silca sand bead blaster hooked up to one's 3000psi pressure washer on the frame, etc. Would this hurt the fiberglass(undercar)?? Or any success with a small sand blaster & air compressor set up?? ANY other tips, PLEASE!!

Thank-you/Cheers....

[Debra Provenzano (42699)]

Re: Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

Keith, I wouldn't use a pressure washer. I own a 1958 Bloomington Gold Survivor. The NCRS gave my car 3 Stars when the previous owner was having the car Bowtie judged. It failed to get the 4th Star & a Bowtie Award. The pressure washer took off overspray on the chassies. That is what I was told by two of the judges who judged the car.If I could do it again, I would get in touch with a judge who specializes in your year car. It was a shame that the 58 I now own cannot be judged again. As we have been going over the car, we are finding it to be great for historical reference. It is absolutly text book. I get so many emails for measurments & pictures for other NCRS members restoring their cars. Bottem line, be really careful & use the text books recommended by the NCRS store. Give Eric a call, he told me the manuals I would need for my car. Good luck with your restoration.
Deb
NCRS 42699

[Kevin Riel]

Re: Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

Keith,

I just went through this on my '59 this Winter. I had the car up on a lift, which helped a great deal. I tried all sorts of things, from Wax and Grease remover (for painting), biodegradable spray on grease remover, to good old laquer thinner. The laquer thinner seemed to work the best. I used a plastic putty knife to get the thick spots off, and a whole lot of towels and such soaked in laquer thinner to get the rest of it off. It's not 100% perfect. There still is a bit of dirt and grease deep down in the pores of the fiberglass floorboards, but I was happy with how it looked when I finished. I also had spots of discoloration on the bare fiberglass from heat from the mufflers over the years. I obviously couldn't do much about that. After it had it as clean as I could get it, I carefully masked off areas and painted the frame and detailed what I could. It's not as good as taking the body off the frame, but it's not bad for a car that I want to be able to drive also.

Kevin Riel

[Dave Strickland (21448)]

Re: Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

Keith,
The archives is full of excellent discussion on thei exact thing. Good Luck. Its a nasty job but can be done.

[Terry Fiala (21624)]

Re: Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

In my opinion you are very very lucky. That tar has preserved the underside of you car like you can't believe. I would probably leave it. Dealer installed and all. Terry

[mike geary]

Re: Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

Keith:

I've tried just about every solvent imaginable to remove undercoat/tar.
By far the best results were with KEROSENE. It's not very volatile so you can apply it with a spray bottle, let it work for a few minutes, and then go to work with scrapers & Scotchbrite pads.

Now BEFORE you follow the above, the heat gun and putty knife are best for getting most of the materia off. I'm not sure what specific material you're dealing with, but undercoat softens up very nicely if you give it enough heat.

I think this may be the nastiest of all the restoration processes --even worse than stripping the paint. Sure looks pretty when finished, though.

MAG

[Justin Nobriga (41362)]

Re: Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

Keith,
I used Jasco paint stripper to remove Bubba's undercoating from my tire tub and other areas. I worked well, but extremely messy and it ruined a pair of my favorite surf trunks. I used heavy-duty rubber gloves, scotch-brite pads and it was a well ventilated area.
Justin

[Clare Carpenter]

Tar removal undercarriage - Ditzo 440

My '62 also had the dealer applied tar based undercoating. I used Ditzler-Ditzo 4-4-0 applied with a cheap brush, given time to soak in and work, and then carefully scraped with putty knife. I found that once the initial hard dried surface had softened, scraping the rest off was fairly easy, but tedious work. Once I got the worst removed, I followed by wiping with clean rag soaked in Ditzo and then kept repeat the process with clean rags until clean and finished. Old tooth brushed are useful for cleaning the nooks and crannies. My job went easier than yours, I'm sure, because I had the body off and on a rotisserie. It still took me 4 Saturdays, 1.5 gallons of Ditzo and two boxes of cotton disposable rags to get it done to my satisfaction!
I suspect that kerosene would work well too but possibly too flammable. You want something with a low evaporation point and not very flammable, although I know Ditzo is flammable. Lacquer thinner is too volatile and the same goes for gasoline. Use common sense safety rules and work in a very well ventilated area, especially since you are underneath the car.
Eastwood also has a product especially for softening and removing undercoating but I have not tried it.
Terry is right the undercoating preserves and protects the factory unfinished fiberglass surface but unless you remove it, you can't see how nice it is. The Ditzo is not so aggressive to remove overspray patterns and mine were all visible after cleaning. Be careful with anything too abrasive or aggressive solvents if you want to preserve lacquer overspray.

[Keith Bramhill (47685)]

Thank-you ladies & Gents-excellent advice. *NM*

[Jeff Allyn (37119)]

Re: Tar removal undercarriage - best advice !!

Please be careful. Most of the substances mentioned above are combustible or flammable. Heat guns, drop light and hot mufflers may be enough to give a great flash fire. Unless you are a teenager into inhalants, a very well ventilated area is called for. As a firefighter, I've seen a garage fire turn into the whole house and a year to rebuild. STAY SAFE.