I own a 1981 GSL and the previous owners undercoated the engine compartement, it looks like sh*t, I tried everything, scraping, varsol, wirebrush, heatgun, but it takes forever and i'm wondering if I should just lift out the engine and sandblast the compartement, is it really worth all the trouble?

 

IOf it looks like **** pull the engine its not that hard

 

I dont think media blast will remove it, its too elastic and soft. Try wd-40? Or that stuff that removes road tar or stickers from a car. Goof off its what I believe its called. Gasoline would work too, but prolly a bit too dangerous.

 

Hey, please post a picture..... I want to see what it looks like under the hood.

Might have to wait until it gets cold out and chip it off.



John

 

Yeah would the "dry ice" method work?

 

i think i have the same stuff...is it yellowish? here's a pic of mine i tried steel wool but it'll take a LOOOOONG time

click the pic to make it bigger

 

The yelllowish paint is usually clear coat applied by used car lots to make the engine bay look glossy. IT works for a while, but with age and the engine heat it turns yellow and flakes off.

J.

 

I ended up scraping all the undercoating that was overspray in my engine bay off with a screwdriver and/or chisel. Took forever as you said, but in the end t was worth it, it looks a TON better now.

~T.J.

 

The engine bay of my '80 was all undercoated as well.

The easiest way to remove undercoating is with a good degreaser, and many applications of it. Undercoating is mainly a thick petroleum sludge, and the degreaser will eat it away.

 

I had the same ****.

I was told it is a kind of wax/petroleum mix.

I used 3M brand wax and grease remover (seamed pretty ovious to me) and a PLASTIC ice scraper.

for a whole engine bay, It took me about 50-75 hours, about 4 big cans of the 3m stuff and FOUR scrapers.

yup, I wore 4 plastic scrapers down till they Were NUBS. this is the easiest way to clean the bay without damaging the paint.

hope this helps, I remember that Heat affected it and made it really soft so you could wipe it away.

might look into a dealership or somebody who has a steam engine cleaner, they work great, but it wont be cheap.