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Tips
Tips

TR6 72 TR6 restoration

GilsTR

Jedi Warrior
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The deconstruction of the 72 TR6 is coming along well.
Seeking info on how the rest of you delt with the undercoating? This is a totally rust free car. Did you try
and scrap or blast off the original undercoating? Just
buy some cans of the undercoating and spray over the original
or....? Any tips appreciated. Gil
 
I tried paint strippers, and a torch to heat the original undercoating in an effort to get it off. When I finally had enough pain and agony, I decided to have the whole body tub chemically stripped. Yes it cost some $, but it saved me lots of time and in the end it was money well spent.
 
Gil,

I stripped off all the undercoating on my 6 with a heat gun and flexible scraper. I used brake cleaner to get off the left over residue and it came out well. I have some pics on my photobucket site showing before and after pics if you want to check them out.

https://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh42/cheftush/Wings/?start=all

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd
 
When I purchased my TR6 back in 1977 I made the huge mistake of having it rustproofed. They sprayed the inside of the engine compartment along with the rest of the car in black tar. Then I never drove the car in rain or snow (go figure). Well in 2001 I restored the car and I spent at least a month just removing all the tar, Very messy. I used all the methods I could think of to remove it. Plastic putty knifes, heat, and lots of rags with mineral spirits. I did have the frame dipped, before it was sand blasted, and then powder coated. As for the shell of the car being dipped I would not do it. The problem is that there could be chemical trapped in areas of the car that could come out latter and damage the paint. Ive heard of people having great results from dipping the car but you must make sure no chemical remains in the shell or any other part.

After all that being said rustproofing, or undercoating is just a pain in the butt to get rid of.
 
I am also a fan of the dip. Wasted tons of valuable time removing tar =no fun!
Thinner and chemical stripper will soften it into a jelly mucky mess, but what is your time worth? Heat will soften some pieces ,sanding will only clog your paper. Yes I am a fan of the dip ;)>
 
I just painted a couple fenders that had I dipped/stripped about 4 years ago and they were still rust free. Working with clean metal like that is awfully nice...

(but don't be a dope like me and wait four years to paint them)
 
Gil,
I'm planning on being in your area the first Friday
in Feb.- any chance I could stop by & see your project?

- Doug
 
I used some heat, but mostly scraped. Fortunately, mine had a lot of pockets where the undercoating nearly fell off(luckily not a rust belt car), but it was time consuming.
The best part of the job is being done with it.
 
I took the under coating off of the inside of my front fender using an angle grinder and a wire wheel, it came off pretty quick, not sure how much undercoating you are removing but I learned sandblasting is a NO NO on flat pannels

hondo
 
hondo402000 said:
I took the under coating off of the inside of my front fender using an angle grinder and a wire wheel, it came off pretty quick,
hondo

I did it that way.

Also you can use a propane or oxy torch and heat it to the point of it catching fire, then brush it off with a wire brush. This is faster than using the grinding wheel. It works best with the parts off the car and not in the garage (for obvious reasons)

Cheers
 
I would be very careful in heating up body pannels with a tourch you will definately warp pannels that way the frame maybe its a lot thicker

Ask me how I found out the hard way, How many lession do I have to learn the freaking hard way

Hondo
 
I used my shop lights to heat up the BACK side of the panel...came right off with a wooden scraper. It takes time, put the physical side of the job becomes very easy. I would move the lights to a section and work on something else until it heated up. I do not think I damaged my panels.
Tim
 
I would never dip a body shell,ever,for several reasons.1. The boxed sections will be left naked inside.2. You can never get the acid out of pinch welds 100%
3.I freakin hate flash rust!!!!!!!!
Media blasting is my choice,followed by judicious use of sand in the rusty bits.
Spray a rust neutralizer into the boxed sections and then treat them later to a good inhibitor.......
MD(mad dog)
 
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