Some kind of tar on floor pan/chassis...

[MikeVW]

If an electric headgun works would a propane or acetylene torch work better?

Mike

[zeroaxe]

Hi Mike,

Not really, but I see your logic! The problem seems to be that when I heat it too much, it kinda melts(which is normal I think ) and you scrape it, it then smears into a very fine film or tar. You take the majority off, but there is that little bit that stays behind. If I warm it up just enough, I can scrape it quite clean. I recon that is the reason why it took me that long to do so little.

The other reason is I dont have a Oxy set-up If I had, I would probably cut the floor out, lol.

Hopefully today I can get some more done.

[Bullyboy]

I found it works best if you heat the scraper, not the tar.
Then it comes off in bigger sections because you are slicing it off.
If you heat the tar it just turns into mush and globs up.
This works good to get tarboards off in one piece if you have a long scraper.
Then you just have to clean up with laquer thinner, acetone, varsol, etc.

[zeroaxe]

Good tip! :agree: I will give that a shot. I hope to have some time tomorrow afternoon to work on it a bit more. Either that, or I continue grinding some weight off of my Type IV's conrods

[SoCalGL]

I just did this two weeks ago.. it took me and my friend, with two chisel and 8 hours of classic rock to get it off.... and i'm still not done now its just me with a heat gun and a metal brush working away at the left overs hopefully by tomm she'll be ready for aircraft stripper... all I can say is go at it till you can't anymore.. then do it tomm...

[zeroaxe]

Well, I have been shipping away on it (pardon the pun) and it is just about done. I am trying to clean up the patches as much as possible to do some welding. But this MIG welder of mine is really frustrating me. Cant seem to get the setting/s right. And the wire doesnt seem to want to roll/feed properly

Next appointment is with the stripper! Sandblastiung that is :agree:

[wrenchnride247]

I run my MIG welder on #1 for amps and 20% on wire feed with .023 gauge wire for thin sheet metal. I have a Miller 135 welder. Make sure you have the right size tip in the gun for the wire size your running, and the pressure on the drive wheels that push the wire thru the cable. To check the wheel pressure put the tip of the gun on a piece of wood (so you don't arc off), and pull the trigger for a second. If the gun gets pushed up off the wood by the wire then your ok. If not, tighten the drive wheels and try again. Also some MIG welders have two different size groves on them for different size wire. You must have have a mix in your gas cylinder of 75% Argon and 25% CO2 for mild steel for MIG welding.


Make sure you have a good ground,and you have clean paint free and grease free spot you are welding. On the thin sheet metal you can't run a long bead or you will blow right through it, or warp it. You must do small quick tacks and space them out over the length of part. Then go back and fill the gaps, spacing the welds out again. This is how i've been welding thin sheet metal with my MIG welder for years. Hope this helps out.