removing seam sealer

[Deleted User]
[Deleted User]
edited November -1 in HUDSON
Anyone know a good method of removing all that seam sealer on a stepdown ? Pecking away at it with a screwdriver and chisel sure is thankless labour !! I'm tempted to try a torch on it, but that would probably produce nothing but a sticky mess. Dry ice ?? Maybe getting it super cold would make it really brittle and it'd shatter with a tap from a hammer and a chisel ??



I know you can't sandblast it away -- the metal would probably wear through before that soft guck wore down.



Anyone find a "silver bullet" for this job ??



Yeah, I know ---- probably "elbow grease" !!



silverone.

Comments

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    What is the current texture of the sealer? If it's turned to stone, which it should have done by now, it can be reconstituted (eventually into a liquid) by dousing it with MEK or similar chemical of choice.
  • Hudsy Wudsy
    Hudsy Wudsy Senior Contributor
    Interesting subject. I was just talking to someone else about the seam sealer and undercoat that they used. First of all, let me tell you that I've scraped and chiseled away at it outdoors when it was fifteen degrees out. Unless something miraculous happens at some point further down the thermometer, cold isn't the answer. A Bernzomatic will heat it sufficiently to eventually scrape it off. Heating the underside of the metal seemed to be more effcient. But it's a slow go. I decided to remove what I could around areas that are going to require metal work and leave anything that I felt was sound. I looked it over carefully and I don't see any cracks in it that would be a problem later. My car is only going to be driver quality anyway. (Nice driver quality, I hope). The nice geltleman that's doing the body work speculated that, having held up so well all of these years and still being pliable enough to take a sharp blow with a hammer, it may be as good as any synthetic available on the market today. When all of the body work is done I'll put a coat of sound deadener or undercoat over most all of it, anyway.

    Am I making a mistake? I hope some of you will state your thoughts on the matter...
  • rambos_ride
    rambos_ride Senior Contributor
    silverone wrote:
    Anyone know a good method of removing all that seam sealer on a stepdown ? Pecking away at it with a screwdriver and chisel sure is thankless labour !! I'm tempted to try a torch on it, but that would probably produce nothing but a sticky mess. Dry ice ?? Maybe getting it super cold would make it really brittle and it'd shatter with a tap from a hammer and a chisel ??

    I know you can't sandblast it away -- the metal would probably wear through before that soft guck wore down.

    Anyone find a "silver bullet" for this job ??

    Yeah, I know ---- probably "elbow grease" !!

    silverone.

    No - the silver bullet is to pay someone else to do it - while you watch with a drink in your hand!

    There are undercoating removal chemicals - but I find them too messy for large jobs.

    The thick seam sealer Hudson used is a bear to get off. I pretty much tackled the 49 with a propane torch, a six-pack of propane bottles, 3-4 different scapers and a screwdriver!

    I'd say the ONLY other thing to make it easier would be to get your car on a rotisserie.

    BTW - I aint touchin' the 50's undercoating unless I have to repair something!:D
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    Yes I did consider leaving alone what looked like it was in good shape yet, but when I did peck away at it in some places, I noticed that when I got lucky and loosened a large chunk, that sometimes rust had been creeping in under areas that previously looked sound. That makes me suspicious of it all, even though I found lots of areas where the stuff was anchored so well that a jackhammer seemed my only option !!



    Maybe I'll do the "strip it only where you're going to weld, or work the metal, do the metalwork, and then "dip" the whole sheboddle in an acid tank. Hopefully, that'll get all the remaining seam sealer off, plus derust the inside of all the "frame" rails at the same time.



    Then I can blow some primer and paint with a wand into all these inaccessable areas, sand off the runs on the visible areas, and paint the whole works.



    Well, at least that sounds like the easy way out now to me. But, as they say, "the best laid plans ....... !



    Who can show me the flaws in this one ?? My bodyman, for starters, says the zinc they use as a sealer after the rinse is a bear to get paint to stick to. Says he had to sand it all off where he wanted paint to stick !!



    Anyone else discover this ?
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I had a 51 Pacemaker coupe I rebuilt for a friend RediStriped. It removed every thing but the steel. All the lead, rust, sealer and any thing else. Looked like new metal when I got it back. And yes it had to be sanded and cleaned and primed with a good etching primer. Used POR on the under side. Sprayed inside the frame with a spray wand. Painted body with A enamel. Had no problem with paint sticking and still stuck after 9 years. Pricey but if you want it really clean to start back with the way to go
  • Hudsy Wudsy
    Hudsy Wudsy Senior Contributor
    It's been a while since I've read about the whole dip stripping process, and I hesitate to talk about things that I don't know much about, but I think I recall that you were to "simply" hose off the this protective coating with water. If that's right, it strikes me as something of a step backwards to introduce water that may be dificult to dry into endless nooks and crannies. I never looked into it much because my car is just a four door sedan and nowhere near valuable enough to warrant the cost.

    Silverone, have you gotten an estimate on the cost of the process? Also, what body style are you working with?
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    James P. wrote:
    It's been a while since I've read about the whole dip stripping process, and I hesitate to talk about things that I don't know much about, but I think I recall that you were to "simply" hose off the this protective coating with water. If that's right, it strikes me as something of a step backwards to introduce water that may be dificult to dry into endless nooks and crannies. I never looked into it much because my car is just a four door sedan and nowhere near valuable enough to warrant the cost.

    Silverone, have you gotten an estimate on the cost of the process? Also, what body style are you working with?



    I've not officially gotten a quote from a stripper yet James, but the bodyman who'll do the paint says it'll make short work of about five grand or so.



    Since I'm doing a '53 Convertible, a cost like this may be justifiable, but I doubt I'd pay that kind of money for a sedan, obviously because of the value of the finished products respectively.



    As a side note, the way I look at these projects in terms of dollars, starts with how much I'd have to pay someone else to do a given job, versus doing it myself. The fellow doing the paint and prep for me charges $50.00 per hour plus materials, so that's about a buck a minute. Of course, I need his skills with bodywork to get a concours result, but a lot of what he has to do like assembly, disassembly, sanding, scraping, etc., is just plain old grunt work that I could do myself, and in this case, he's happy to let me do as much of it as I wish. Thusly, assuming I work as efficiently as he does at a particular job, then I'm making a buck a minute too, in monies I don't have to pay out, and all he has to do is show me which grade sandpaper, or which tool is the best, or whatever, for a particular job.



    Sooo -- divide how many hours it would take me to sand and scrap an entire car to bare and clean metal, by the cost of a "dip", and maybe I'd be working pretty cheap if I tried to do it by hand, plus I'd never get into some areas that the acid would, so the job would never be as thorough. Add to that the extra time my bodyman would have to spend finishing and prepping areas I missed, or didn't do good enough ( with me paying him a buck a minute ), and the dipping process could turn out to be a good investment indeed, in my mind.



    Anyway, to this point, I'm just kicking around some ideas.



    silverone.
  • Hudsy Wudsy
    Hudsy Wudsy Senior Contributor
    We are of one mind. If I had the opportunity to restore a convert I would have a whole different set of standards and wouldn't hesitate to spend the money. I wish you all sucess with your project!
  • rambos_ride
    rambos_ride Senior Contributor
    If you're going for a body dip - I'd do it before you do the metal repairs.

    The rust that is present will be a much larger section than before the dip - because the dip will get the stuff you'd normally miss or disregard as "not rusted thru".

    The dip also strips away a certain amount of metal -- that's why racers do it - to lighten the steel body...and sometime in doing so you'll expose a weak or "tinny" panel that might need some additional work.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    If you plan to strip. Remove every thing that can be removed. I did not remove the front frame on the Pacemaker but every thing that was held on with bolts, screws or other fastners was removed. The dipper had to drill a small hole in each rear wheel well and in the center of the top so it would sink in the vat. Did not do any repairs at all before takeing to stripper. When I got it back there were some small rust holes in yhe rockers and rear fenders and a couple in the bottom of the doors where I could not see rust before dipping.
  • rambos_ride
    rambos_ride Senior Contributor
    aHHH scraping seal...be careful what you wish for ;)

    TrunkInterior_5med.jpg


    http://www.49c8.com/images/work/Trunk/TrunkPan3_2med.jpg

    http://www.49c8.com/images/work/Trunk/TrunkFabFinal_3med.jpg
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