Removing original underbody coat

I have a 1952 mercury and it came from the factory with a 1 inch hard almost rubber coat sprayed on the underside of the entire car and I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with this stuff and if anyone knows a good way to get it off preferably down to bare metal because I have rust repair I need to do. Thanks

 

start with an electric heat gun and a putty knife for the heavy stuff

 

Ok thanks

 

Wash with mineral spirits when the majority of it is off.

 

try one of those vibrating saw/chisel, I got one from home detpo and it rocks on any flat metal but it super noisy

 

someone makes undercoating remover.....I saw it after I spent a lot of time removing some on an old panel truck. That stuff was rock hard. I used heat and a scraper. Worked best to have someone on the inside heating while I was on the undercoating side scraping.

 

I did a lot of floor patch panels and I just sandblasted the floor areas that were going to be cut out until I got to solid metal.

After the floors were solid again I scraped off anything that was loose then I bought a case of spray undercoat and sprayed the bare area and went back over everything underneath. HRP

 

Faster yet with a Bernz-a-matic type torch with a small flame. Just warm up the area and a stiff puttyknife will peel the area clean in a jiffy. Wipe down with turpentine and your done.

 

One vote for the heatgun and puttyknife too!

 

Elbow grease, hate that job. What ever works, Some of mine chipped off cold with a putty knife.

 

I found it easier to use a 1/2 inch wide blade straight screwdriver and a ball peen hammer..
First grind the blade of the screw driver to a chisel shape. so it cuts easier.
It's a tedious, slow process.

 

i have a pneumatic scaler tool that gets the rock hard stuff off nicely.

 

The under coat is the likey reason you have corrosion. I have one 51 Merc with undercoat and one without that lived their life in the same part of the world. The one without has mostly surface rust. The one with has major cancer. I would prime the area well and put the sound deadener inside the car instead of outside.

 

I took a wood chisel and ground a radius on the edge and it works real well with the radius the corners will not dig in and works on most any contours.

 

Some form's of undercoat will lift off w/an quality paint stripper, followed w/fresh Scotch Brite pads dipped in lacquer thinner.

 

Heat gun putty knife.


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I have used all the above methods. Each one works. Some work better on one job than another. I know some people will not like this idea, but get a pump up garden sprayer and try spraying a bit of kerosene or diesel fuel on it. Sometimes it will soften it enough to scrape off easy. There is no magic solution. Elbow grease works best.