Best way to remove interior tar...
 

... Hammer and a chisel? I thought I heard somewhere you could but dry ice on it, the the tar would crack off in pieces.

Any ideas? I'm not looking foward to the hammer chisel option.

I used dry ice to remove it in my car. If you can find it crushed to the consistancy of snow it works much better. It was really time consuming busting up a 40lb block of dry ice into small enough chips to use. Let it sit for around 15 minutes and hammer away with a mallet or deadblow. It came off in large chunks. I never really figured out a technique of how to keep the dry ice against the vertical portion of the firewall. That I had to remove the old fashioned way.

Another technique I recently heard about and that I will try on my next race car project sounds much easier but it requires the car to be COMPLETELY stripped. A pressure washer with a very high pressure tip is supposed to break it up and not damage the floorpan like you can with a hammer.

So since winter is coming..........

On the coldest day of the year(or a day in the 20's or teens), carefully start at the edge with an air chisel and move on to the end. I did mine in about an hour with no damage to the floorpan. I used less pressure from the compressor(about 70 pounds) and a curved tool in the chisel. It was really quite easy.

dave

Oops! I see you are in San Diego. I guess you will need to use some form of coolant. It's really easy when cold.

db

Dave hit it on the head. Cold and an air chisel. Just be careful with the chisel.;)

Chris

dry ice and a hammer was incredibly easy, and just about ready for paint once finished.

PaulC

I have heard about the dry ice thing too, But i was to lazy to go get some, it took me about 4 hours with a hammer and wood chisel to get it out of my rx3, but now its done and it came out pretty good. There is still some residue left, so i am going to use some goof off or something to get the rest off.

CJG

Dry Ice is the way to do it.

I received my dry icec in pellet form. so it worked great. Better than a block, because you don't have to chip it yourself, and better than shavings because it lasts longer, and you can move them around.

Dry ice is cheap, and you can do fun stuff with it when you finish. :)

how much does it all weigh is it worth doing???? and does it sound beta once done?

If you're racing, it's worth doing. Since this is the race car tech forum, most of us probably think it's worth doing :)

And if you're worried about sound, you have priorities mixed up ;)

PaulC

And this has what to do w/ "Race Car Tech"????

In alot of race cars you want to make them lighter and removing the tar is a good way to remove that weight.

oh wow ?super moderator? mabee he was tired when he moved it....

Ernie, This has everything to do with Race Car Tech.

PaulC

My mistake. I was so used to going through these posts and finding things like "My brakes make noises" in the Race tech section. I didn't read this post. I just assumed you were talkin about bug splat......My appologies...:D

I've heard 30lbs commonly quoted. I'd guess less but am not good at guessing weight. But since my car is actually under weight and the ballast location that the SCCA specifys is not ideal leaving some of that crap in may have been a good idea.:eek:

Chris

Where did you get the dry ice from?

Most industrial gases stores, welding supply, etc.

PaulC

it's cold out now.. well.. not where you're at..

take dry ice and do it, just leave it sit for a little while till it's REALLY freaking cold, hammer it, and it'll chip right off. Don't hit it too hard or you'll have some tar sticking to your car still, and it's tough to get off.

Cool, thanks. I have to take my dash out to fix my heater core, and I wanted to go ahead and take the seats and carpet out to remove that stuff.

The coldest it gets around here in November is around freezing on a rare occasion, and that's at like 2 am.

Man, I still to this day can't believe I used a heat gun and scraper to get it all out. I didn't hear about using dry ice until after I spend a whole weekend of the summer scraping. But, may be a good option for the vertical parts :o:

I guess I could of PM'd this to you becuase it just applies to us near Birmingham.. anyway here it is.

S & S CARBONIC AND DRY ICE COMPANY INC
(205) 323-1626
124 S 16TH ST
BIRMINGHAM , AL 35233

They are in the warehouse district of downtown (Between 1st Ave and 2nd Ave South on 16th Street). Be sure to take a big cooler with you. Ask them if they sell it in pellets or crushed because the huge block they gave me was hard to use.

look up Dry Ice on superpages.net, or party stores sometimes have it too

Most ice cream shops have them and willing to sell to the public if you ask...


-Ted

I used an air chisel on my FC and got it all out in about an hour (at about 50 degrees). I weighed all the pieces I could collect and it came to a little over 20 lbs. Even if I had collected all the dust and tiny pieces it *might* weigh 25lbs.
Good luck

I work at a grocery store and we sell it to the public. Go to your local non chain gorcey and they might have it.
As i said earlier i took the material out of my rx3 and i weighed it when i was done. I vacumed a lot of it but i estimate i got about 7-15 lbs out. The rx7s might have more.

CJG