Cleaning glass fibre donor body - how?

WorldClassAccident · #1 4th April 2012, 12:52

The interior of the Scimi I am using for a donor has various bits of padding and sound proofing stuck to it. I can get some of it off with a scraper but lots of it is tar or glue.

It doesn't come off with a jet wash and my angle grinder with a wire brush will go straight through the glass fibre. I am dubious about using solvents.

I want the tub cleaned so I can paint it something other than the bright green it is at the moment and also so I have a clean base on which to put my interior.

Any suggestions of how to clean it without destroying or dissolving it?

garyh · #2 4th April 2012, 13:05

Lightly warm up with hot air gun and scrape?

WorldClassAccident · #3 4th April 2012, 13:11

Fair bit of scraping.

That is sort of what I started doing. Trouble is that if I use a sharp bladed scraper it keeps catching the plastic and if I use a blunt scraper it doesn't get the muck off.

I was hoping for some silver bullet solution rather than hard graft :-( Oh well, back to the blisters

garyh · #4 4th April 2012, 13:16

what about the scrapers that you pull towards yourself, i have a couple of Sandvik ones.

WorldClassAccident · #5 4th April 2012, 13:20

Just googled pull scrapers

That might be overkill!!

I will have a look on the screwfix site. Thanks

garyh · #6 4th April 2012, 13:24

This sort of thing...

http://aird-tools.co.uk/shop/bahco-s...er-p-9707.html

Charman.tech · #7 4th April 2012, 14:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by WorldClassAccident

Fair bit of scraping.

That is sort of what I started doing. Trouble is that if I use a sharp bladed scraper it keeps catching the plastic and if I use a blunt scraper it doesn't get the muck off.

I was hoping for some silver bullet solution rather than hard graft :-( Oh well, back to the blisters

We could not find one it was just hard craft and someone had glued in foam backed carpets to ours, we did employ a hot air gun but mainly hard graft and leaving in the open rain for six months, we had to come back to the job several times.

What was really annoying was cleaning certain parts only to cut them out and discard at a later date, mainly due to our body alterations and yes we stuck the scraper blades though the glass on many occasions

Good luck

Mister Towed · #8 4th April 2012, 18:40

My cheap Chinese sand blaster (now sold) would have been gentle enough to strip paint from fibreglass without damaging it so long as you angled the stream of grit rather than firing it at 90 degrees to the surface. Just a thought.

WorldClassAccident · #9 4th April 2012, 20:05

Long handled scraper, replaceable blades elbow grease and sat out side for a couple of months has helped a lot.

The foot wells sheltered from the weather were noticeably herder to clean than the exposed bits. Discovered a lot of little rivets and screw heads left in the shell, hence the replacement blades.

At least the water it collects now on the drive will be clean.

Nike55 · #10 4th April 2012, 20:43

Soda 'blasting' ? - Haven't tried it myself yet (but will be when I eventually get my car back) and have heard it is quite gentle...

Not sure if enamel paint thinners would do your composite body any good but have used it (on aluminium) to remove 'Sikaflex' ok....

(I've been perusing photos of other peoples builds whilst waiting and had figured this would be a problem. I decided to simply cop out and panel over everything in sheet alloy)...

The 1958 Rocker · #11 4th April 2012, 20:44

Hi WCA, how about filling the tub with clean water and borrowing some of those foot manecure fish things, if not rub surface with sardine paste and get a few rough tongued cats. If all else fails, coat the surface with anything edible, and I will bring my black lab over!! She will have it cleaned off in no time.

Alternatively you may have to resort to elbow grease after all. Sorry mate no good ideas at present. My brother is a fibreglass laminater and mould maker by trade (handy, he's just move into the next village :-) ) cannot get hold of him, but will see if he has any ideas.

WorldClassAccident · #12 4th April 2012, 21:09

Sorted for the moment thanks.

Feel free to post what prep prior to painting it. remember, one side is the inside and the other is under the car.

Inside body colour normal paint/ fibre glass paint
Underside tar and stuff like that?

The 1958 Rocker · #13 4th April 2012, 21:16

WCA any advice will be passed on for all, regards Simon

volospian · #14 5th April 2012, 07:25

The interior of mine...

With a lot of scraping and cursing with an old blunt chisel...

It's actually even cleaner than that now, I just haven't taken any pics of the interior for a while.

WorldClassAccident · #15 5th April 2012, 07:29

I will put up a pic of mine later today if I can get the camera phone to talk to the pc (it has suddenly stopped working). It is a lot cleaner even after only and hour or so. I am hoping to get rid of the last of the screws and rivets that seem to dot the plastic doing very little.

Nice to see that the virulent green wasn't unique to my shell.

Any plans to repaint it or treat the underside?

volospian · #16 5th April 2012, 07:57

lol, yeah, one thing for certain, it's definitely green!

It didn't actually take much getting off. Certainly nowhere near as much of a ballache as I expected. I suppose 40 year old glue loses some of it's potency

It depends upon what I do with the shell. Until I see a G46 I'm not committed to that route. If I keep the Scimitar it'll just be covered in soundproofing and carpet so I'll just give it a going over with some light solvent or something to prep it for the glue.

If I go for a G46, I'm thinking of cleaning it well and spraying it with several coats of matt silver paint. I'm imagining a "stripped out ally" look for the interior.

As for the underside... not sure yet, but I imagine I'll have to spend some time cleaning the muck and oil off and spraying something on. I'll go for thick and gunky of it's a scim (to assist in sound deadening), and thin and basic if it's a G46 (for added lightness

)

Charman.tech · #17 5th April 2012, 08:33

WCA & Volo

Are both of your cars SE5's rather than 5a's seems to be difference around the centre tunnel at dash end and both have the Jolly Green Giant finish! ours did not just black.

All we did on the underside was scrape of the dirt and grease and thoroughly scrub with Mr Muscle! We thought that it looked so good after 40 odd years that it would probably go another 40 odd years and there was no danger of rust!

WorldClassAccident · #18 5th April 2012, 08:54

I was thinking sound proofing rather than rust proofing. I remember as a kid going in an uncles plastic kit car and almost feeling every stone chipping hitting the bottom of the tub.

Charman.tech - Quick question on remounting the body. When I took mine off there were bits and pieces of rubber strip on top of the chassis. I guess they were to stop the body rubbing about too much. Are they meant to be on every bit of the chassis? Will cut up strips of inner tube suffice?

volospian · #19 5th April 2012, 08:58

Yep, SE5 here. I was also thinking sound rather than rust proofing, although if I was going G46 route, then sound is less of an issue (as you won't hear much over the exhaust

) so I'd just tidy it up and spray something on to make it look tidy on a ramp

Charman.tech · #20 5th April 2012, 09:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by volospian

Yep, SE5 here. I was also thinking sound rather than rust proofing, although if I was going G46 route, then sound is less of an issue (as you won't hear much over the exhaust

) so I'd just tidy it up and spray something on to make it look tidy on a ramp

You gota go G46 after the sketch you did! what else do you have in mind?