VI Cutty

My trunk appears to be coated with some sort of sticky black material which seems to be petroleum based. I'd like to cleanup my trunk with some paint but I suspect whatever it is will leech through. The coating is probably at least 20 years old and still tacky. Rubbing it with paint and lacquer thinner removes some but wasn't effective to get the bulk off. It could be a spray on undercoating, but pretty thin.

Any suggestions on what I can try to clean the surfaces up? It's seeming like my next best option at this point is scrapping with a putty knife.

My current efforts aren't intended to be a full restoration...I will have to remove the gas tank and weld in some patches at a later date but I don't see that happening for some time yet so for now my goal is to just clean things up decently.

Olds64

You could try a drill and a wire wheel.

VI Cutty

I'll give that a try, although I suspect the substance is more likely to clump into the wheel.

Olds64

Here's a product you might use:



Although, if lacquer thinner didn't do much I don't know if this would work any better.

VI Cutty

I'll check that out. The lacquer thinner would probably do it, but I'm reluctant to use it in the quantities that would be needed for the job.

VI Cutty

Got some Goo Be Gone last night, not sure if that's similar to the Goof Off but it was essentially non-effective. Also picked up some Duplicolor Trunk Spatter paint just to see what the result would be. As suspected, the tar substance leached through into the Spatter paint which wasn't "dry to the touch" after about an hour and a half of setting up. The chemical reaction going on permitted easier scraping of all the material away, but that's an expensive paint stripper.

It's looking like my best approach is going to be a putty knife and patience as it doesn't appear the surface was well prepped prior to application of the junk...so it's coming off with some rust flakes in places.

This crap is sprayed all over inside the trunk, including the inside of the quarter panels. Looks like this "small" project is going to get bigger.

VI Cutty

Tried to attach this earlier but couldn't.

The lighter area is the splatter paint with the tar leeching through. The portion in the centre is where I used the paint scraper at least 90 minutes after applying it...you can probably make out the blob of paint/tar at the top of the strip. Yeah, the trunk has issues.

Olds64

You might try going by the auto parts store for aviation paint stripper. It would surely take it off. Make sure you wear PPE if you use it though, it's nasty stuff.

Koda

Try some gasoline or white gas.