Does anyone have any good methods for stripping the underseal from the floors from under the car?

Heat gun and a scraper see to be the one but just wondered if there was any other option before I do the whole of my Polo underneath while I have the axle and tank off.

 

Thanks

I use a blowtorch, obviously safety measures need to be taken, and make sure you're in a well ventilated space. 

is this on a 2F?

 

If so, i tried heatgun / blow torch and it doesn't even touch the stuff on the inner arches / floor and ended up scraping the majority of it off with a sharp chisel and then a wire wheel on a grinder to remove and residue / rusty bits 

Yeah it's on a 2f,  sounds like a massive job I'll have to crack on.

1 hour ago, gofasterpinch said:

is this on a 2F?

 

If so, i tried heatgun / blow torch and it doesn't even touch the stuff on the inner arches / floor and ended up scraping the majority of it off with a sharp chisel and then a wire wheel on a grinder to remove and residue / rusty bits 

 

Yeah, VAG underseal is good stuff, I tend to aim to light it rather than melt it. 

I had the same problem on one of my 70's beetle's nothing would touch it apart from a wood chisel , that would remove most of it then what was left I would soak in petrol . Very hard work..

i've had some success getting this stuff off VW's in the past. There isn't a quick or easy way. A wire brush attachment for a grinder works reasonably well, as does a flap disc but it tends to kind of warm it up and smear it over the panel. Celly thinners and scotchbrite are great for getting any residue off. I did my floor recently when my axle and tank were out but i just ripped off what was loose and pressure washed the rest and sprayed new stuff over the top of it. I'd say if its not coming off easily then just leave it, its obviously well adhered to the panels and still doing its job. The original under body rubber shit is over paintable too btw.

If you don't have access to a ramp id highly recommend getting a full face mask like the ones for strimming bushes because if you use the flap disc method theres going to be a lot of very hot sticky rubber flying everywhere.

 

Edited 23 October, 20169 yr by dubster
to include safety advice

On 22/10/2016 at 15:30, Jake said:

Yeah it's on a 2f,  sounds like a massive job I'll have to crack on.

 

I found lots of areas that didn't look "damaged" but had patches of surface rust behind the sealer.

 

I scraped most of it off with a sharp wood chisel then took the rest off with one of these:

 

 

Removing the majority of stuff with a chisel seemed to stop it melting and smearing everywhere with a tool on the grinder for the final pass

 

Also, wear a dust mask when you do

 

also attached a pic of my inner arch after stripping:

Yeah does look really good that to be honest just a long job ?

It's a laborious task for sure but power tools will certainly take the majority of the work out of it. Needle de-scalers work well if the stuff is coming loose. Thinners and scotchbrite will remove anything that's not too heavy. Warming it up a bit should help but be careful of any blow torches etc, when underseal goes on fire it is usually spectacular.