gerahead
Glutton for Punishment
I got a chance to try a method to remove body filler (bondo) that was suggested by a friend quite a while back. It is cleaner than sanding, no where near as messy as chemicals and pretty quick, but does take some elbow grease.
It is a propane torch. Yup, just like the one we use to sweat copper pipe fittings. The crud that I had to remove was over 3/16 thick in some areas and that took a little longer, but in the places where it wasn't that thick it worked really slick. Just heat up an area about the size of a playing card until it starts to bubble and scrape it away. You end up with a pile of shavings, but it doesn't get all over everything like the dust from sanding. A heat gun might work on thinner coatings, but for mud as thick as I had to deal with, I don't think it gets hot enough. The filler will burn, so be careful when you are scraping it off and wear gloves so that the gooey, hot chunks that land on the back of your hand don't hurt as much. Good luck!! L8r.
Jim
It is a propane torch. Yup, just like the one we use to sweat copper pipe fittings. The crud that I had to remove was over 3/16 thick in some areas and that took a little longer, but in the places where it wasn't that thick it worked really slick. Just heat up an area about the size of a playing card until it starts to bubble and scrape it away. You end up with a pile of shavings, but it doesn't get all over everything like the dust from sanding. A heat gun might work on thinner coatings, but for mud as thick as I had to deal with, I don't think it gets hot enough. The filler will burn, so be careful when you are scraping it off and wear gloves so that the gooey, hot chunks that land on the back of your hand don't hurt as much. Good luck!! L8r.
Jim
