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MG MGB Technical - Removing old rubber?

I’ve shared with many of you the story of getting my 1970 MGB back 25+ years after selling it. When I was restoring my MGA I remember a lot of “Oh my Gods” as I uncovered a lot of abuse and neglect of over last 40 years. This time around I’m constantly saying, “I can’t believe it” as the last 25 years have been exceedingly kind to this old gal.

Tonight I’m trying to remove some kind of rubber product under the floor mats that has welded itself to the floorboards. The floor panels themselves are in remarkable shape, the metal is almost pristine …but that rubber mess must be removed as there are signs of rust developing in some areas. Besides laboriously prying the mess off the metal floor panels is there any kind of chemical that can be safely applied to soften the rubber for removal? I’ve tried heating it with a small propane torch but that is dangerous and smelly. I’m using a paint scraper but the front edge is nearly inaccessible.

Thank you for any hints
Danny Jacob

Danny - I suspect that you are dealing with an asphalt sound deadening substance rather than rubber. If it is asphalt, a solvent such as paint thinner or lacquer thinner should loosen it, just be sure to wear a good respirator when working with that stuff. Good luck- Dave
David DuBois

Danny, you can soften the material with a heat gun - the cheap kind used for removing paint. The $15 investment could save you hours!!! Scrape the majority off with the heat gun and a 1" stiff putty knife, then get the rest off with solvent. Acetone is tremendous, but evaporates fast. Laquer thinner is decent, but evaporates very slowly. Either way, DO NOT use the heat gun once solvents are introduced, or you will see how burning the rubber material out also works, with the side effect of gutting your entire car.
Jeff Schlemmer

With both the cars I have I found that stuff actually comes off pretty easily in large chunks if you get a chisel under it. Once you get under an edge that is. I'd try that first before using solvents. Using the solvents will be very, very messy.

Simon
Simon Jansen

Get some dry ice put it in bags and spread it over the floor. Have a beer or 2 and then from the underside hit the floor with a mallet. Pop goes the asphalt.
Mike MaGee

The trendy thing to do here is dry ice blasting. Instead of blasting it with sand or some other coarse media, the process uses shredded dry ice. It has the advantage of being cold, so tar, rubber, grease or whatever tends to stay hard and brittle. The carbon dioxide sublimes on impact and works its way under the stuff you are trying to get off.

I don't know how messy it is but if you've got your MG well stripped down that won't be a problem.

Mike
Mike Standring

what worked better was a heat gun. It softened the rubber (???) and then with a putty knife I was able to easily remove all the residue. Now I have to remove the rest of the stuff sprayed throughout the cockpit by the PO as a sound deadener or as rust prevention. At least with metal you can see rust forming but hidden under a so called protective barrier my car would have become a basket case in a few years.
danny jacob

Good advice above. I'm an advocate of 10 mil bitchethane ( "Grace Ice Gaurd" or 6" wide window flash) after removal. I use it all over, its almost as thick as the very pricey DynaShield, and can be contoured with that heat gun. The sound deadening is fantastic and well worth the $$. Vic
vem myers

I think the sound deadening stuff was sprayed around the cockpit at the factory? I am trying to get it off my car around the firewall and the sides of the footwells. It looks to me it was sprayed over the primered steel then painted over.

Either way it is a messy job getting rid of it so I share your pain :)

Simon
Simon Jansen

took a look in my footwells over the weekend, I have some kind of sprayed on gunk in there but it is from the factory, still got the factory paint in the footwells and it covers it all.
Jake

This thread was discussed between 13/11/2004 and 15/11/2004

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