Seam Sealer removal?

tyroguru

tyroguru

Club Member
I'm currently stripping all the underseal from the car and it's proving to be a character building exercise :) . I'll be having it media blasted at some point though I've not sorted that out yet so I don't know what media etc., will be used. Should I be stripping the seam sealer out before it goes for blasting? If it makes the blasting easier and less of a stress on the metal then I'll "happily" do it but I wanted to make sure it's not wrong to remove it.
 
Turn & Burn

Turn & Burn

Club Member
The blasting media hates soft or rubbery stuff, it absorbs the media energy, not sure if that makes
it worse for the shell underneath in terms of heat build up. The guy that blasted mine spent hours and hours on the soft stuff so if u can get it off I would. Try a heatgun, thats just a guess.
The soundproofing inside prefers to come off cold u can get it to shatter if it’s cold enough. You can use dry ice blocks apparently, I used a very blunt wood chisel!
 
tyroguru

tyroguru

Club Member
Just tried fire and it turns the seam sealer to plasticine! Plasticine that is on fire and giving off a horrible smoke but plasticine nonetheless [emoji3] . Brilliant - thanks!

The sound deadening/insulation inside came out reasonably easily (compared to the underseal anyway!). I saw that people like to freeze it off but I just went at it with a window bead removal tool and it was kind of ok - give or take a lot of huffing and puffing.
 
tyroguru

tyroguru

Club Member
Thanks gents. What I found worked very well was a heat source (MAP gas torch in my case) to heat it up and scrape it off with a sharp scraper. I then repeated the process but used wire wool instead of a scraper to remove any left over residue.

Mike - I have got an MBX. It's fantastic and I've used it extensively with the underseal removal but I did find it wasn't getting through the seam sealer too easily so figured there was probably an old school way. Maybe I've got the wrong belt on it for that? What I love about it is the amount of control you have - you just have to hold it on the surface with no pressure and it removes the layers of whatever but you can remove individual layers. For example, I can easily leave a lot of the original undercoat on if I want to as you can just see it appearing through the top surface. Amazing tool really.
 
moggy240

moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Where I can't get in the mbx i just finish with a small wire wheel on a drill or die grinder
 
uk66fastback

uk66fastback

Club Member
I'd still take an angle grinder with the relevant similar attachment - my time is free after all, so I'd be prepared to put the hours in and think of the £££ I was saving. Do any of us ever sell on tools when we're done? We just store them for the next job!
 
tyroguru

tyroguru

Club Member
uk66fastback said:
I'd still take an angle grinder with the relevant similar attachment - my time is free after all, so I'd be prepared to put the hours in and think of the £££ I was saving. Do any of us ever sell on tools when we're done? We just store them for the next job!
Click to expand...

Yes, it was rather a frivolous purchase for an amateur (i.e., me!) who's just working on their own car. However, I was sold on its supposed ability to remove material such as rust and paint without any detrimental effect on the underlying material unlike a grinder and other tools. Now, it probably doesn't make much, if any, difference at my level but I was sold anyway. I also have no problems whatsoever on spending money on nice tools :) .
 
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