Engine bay

[stebec]

My engine bay needs a good cleaning up before i paint it, and the engine block, the engine bay seems to have like an under seal all over it, is there anything i can use to remove it?

Steve

[trigolf]

If it's brush painted DIY underseal, try a rag soaked in white spirit ( the trad stuff, not the modern rubbish). If its hard, a hot air gun and and paint scraper might be needed to chip it off.

Gav

[Colin Lindsay]

Petrol often works, if you don't mind the price.... use the cheap stuff. Be prepared for a lot of mess and keep a goodly number of old rags handy for cleanup. I cleaned the underside of a heavily undersealed Herald tub a few years back and the mess was unbelievable, as was the smell, so plenty of disposable gloves and old clothes are also a good idea. 

[JohnD]

Petrol as an engine bay cleaner, with a wide area of the car soaked in it, a pool of it under the car and a bin full of petrol soaked rags,  and a high concentration of vapour in the surrounding air would be an enormous fire hazard!

DO NOT USE PETROL IN THIS WAY!

Gunk, or another engine  cleaner, would be much safer!

John

Edited December 30, 2023 by JohnD

[PeteH]

I removed a similar product, manually with a combination of scrapers and rotary wire brush, from the Bonnet of a 13/60, prior to welding repairs. It was all over the Chassis as well, Hours and Hours of work.

Hazard warning!!!!. Back in the 80`s, our two teenaged sons came back from the pub, Late, as they tend to do, and finding the barbecue still warm had the "brilliant" idea of cooking burgers. Throw a few coals on and squirt barbecue lighting fluid on, the inevitable happened, the thing cracked into a ball of flame and badly singed the eldest. First we knew of it was the racket as the youngest threw him in the shower and turned it on him and his self. Rest of the night spent in A&E, One son with no hair to speak of and third degree burns and the pattern from his T shirt where it had fused to his skin. He survived, his hair grew back, the A&E houseman said the youngest`s action had probably saved him from more severe burns. Lesson learned, he is now a financial vice president of a Texas Oil company. And Master of the Barbecue/Broiler.😁 Moral? Don`t mess with volatile fluids and flame/ignition sources, even if you think they are dead.

Pete

[stebec]

Thanks for your replies