Hey guys

I'm painting my mini during this downtime and was wondering if anyone had any tips for removing tar from inside the boot. I've encountered this before with my other mini (must have been an old school method of rustproofing) and used a heat gun and paint scraper. This was very time consuming so I thought I would see if anyone had any advice before I head back down that path.

Cheers,

Tom

One method I’ve heard is dry ice and a rubber mallet. The ice makes the tar brittle and hopefully shatter with a little hit from the hammer

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thinners and plastic scraper should do ,it if not paint stripper
Allen

I started a similar job on the front floor yesterday. I ended up scraping as much as I could, then turps, and scrape again if it was still too thick for turps. Didn't think of heat gun, so that's handy to help complete the job.

Essentially the brake master cylinder leaked - was new, bad batch from manufacturer.. Grrr. It had sat for 6 weeks, so a puddle of brake fluid. It ruined what paint was left, the shelf for the clutch&brake pedal rusted, brake pedal, etc etc. So I've ended pulling the pedal box and cleaning/scraping/wire wheel/derusting.

It looks like someone used a bitumen based sealer over most of the front floor pan. The brake fluid loosened most of it up on drivers side (I don't recommend that as a method though!). As I scraped up the tar I could see that oil had seeped under it - not happy. Lucky i didn't have any carpet in, that would have been ruined as well.

There also seemed to be a tar seam sealer, much thicker and definately harder to remove. Was that factory? Especially around tunnel and subframe. I also noticed some brass solder around tunnel seam, is that factory? (66 deluxe).

Question is, if the seam sealer was factory, should I be putting something back there? And what would the best product be?

Would best process be rust convert, paint, seam. sealer, dyno mat?

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1966 Mini Deluxe - “Gabby” 34 years under restoration and counting...
1970 MGBGT
1959 MGA

Have been doing similar bitumen sealer removal. The factory used a very thick coating over every seam that has set hard over the years. I have been using paint stripper and a scraper blade; more paint stripper and scrub off remaining sealer with stainless steel wool in a bucket of water plus washing soda - it stops the old paint and sealer clogging the wool.
Andosoft:
There was a lot of factory brazing around the tunnel, toe board, floor panels - front and rear wheel arches.

After paint stripping to bare metal, remove any rust spots with clean-'n'-strip disc or wire wheel; then wash the metal with a phosphoric acid solution to remove dirt, light rust etc and to prepare the surface for primer; seam sealer goes over the primer and is then covered by topcoat.

I assume your back and knees feel like mine then! I think I'm wearing at about the same rate as my mini, pity I can't get replacement parts and a respray as well...

Nice to know the brass weld and seam work is factory. I thought it was dodgy bothers.
Consensus on dyno mat or similar sound deadening? Is it just another water/rust trap?

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1966 Mini Deluxe - “Gabby” 34 years under restoration and counting...
1970 MGBGT
1959 MGA

I'm doing the same job on my firewall. Paint stripper works a treat, a bit slow but all bitumen removed with a single application.

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1970 Mk2
1968 Mk1 project

This may be of interest - viewtopic.php?f=49&t=95451

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Excellent resource, would never have considered sealing pedal box bolts and some other areas in engine bay. Even applying sealer to grommets.

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1966 Mini Deluxe - “Gabby” 34 years under restoration and counting...
1970 MGBGT
1959 MGA

lets seal the car correctly with modern materials. For the floor top and bottom use stone guard you can buy it in a pressure pack can. The panels must be primed before using stone guard seal any seams with a urethane sealer sikaflex is fine for these applications. I also fix the 4 outside cover strips on with urethane sealer no clips required .Small MIG tack top and bottom.
Allen

The trap I fell into with "ripple textured sealer" in my last rebuild was confusing the trade terminology:
"sound deadener" was a ripple textured spray originally put over the underside floor but cannot be colour coated (finishes as dull black, or bitumen);
"stone guard" is a ripple textured spray used in the wheel arches - it can be colour-coated, as per factory finish.
I am not using seam sealer as much as the factory did, as I expect the car to be used less frequently now.

Heat it up with a heat gun and scrape it off then wire wheel on grinder then clean it up with wax and grease remover and here's a labour saveing tip that will save you about 5lt of elbow grease go down to Bunnings and get a multi tool with a paint scraper attachment and let the tool do the scraping

Thanks guys, currently using a combination of all of these techniques trying to get into all of the difficult sections of the boot. Some parts were almost 1 cm thick.