Engine Bay Clean Up ?

Hi,

So I always see engine/engine bay pictures posted on here and it makes me very jealous, lol.

Well, I was in the garage yesterday, looking at my engine bay, and decided I want to try to remove all of the Ziebart that was sprayed in there 30+ years ago. I can see very nice paint peeking thru in various places and the firewall paint looks so nice (see first picture), that the whole bay looks disgusting with that horrid black everywhere. This car is not going to be driven in bad weather and it will always have a place in my garage, so I figured that the Ziebart has done its job and its time to go.

Now... what would you propose I use to try to remove this? I have a few full cans of bug and tar remover.. do you think that will work? Is there something better? The plan is to remove the Ziebart without damaging the underlying paint, as it looks to be very nice underneath.

Also... The panel that sits under the radiator... was that also painted the body color, or was that painted black in the factory? I look at it and see no blue peeking thru like the other panels in the bay. (see second picture)

Hi John,

Varsol will remove the Ziebart and not damage the paint. The panel under the rad was black from factory.

The panel under the radiator was BODYCOLOUR from factory - all of the shell was bodycolour.
Paul ;-)

Mine (a '77 like yours) is flat black paint close to the rad and looks original.

Varsol will do a great job but be careful 'cause it's very flammable.

Bob

NZMGBs Wrote:

I suspect the cardboard panel is the one he is speaking of. This was black. All of the sheetmetal was body color

Eastwood makes a undercoating softener that might be helpful.

I'm with Matt on this one - my '76 has the same black paint along the lower edge of the inner fender walls, and under the radiator. Yes, there is also a black cardboard shield.

Every late rubber bumper B I've seen has the same black paint in the forward edge of the engine compartment.

I did a quick search for Varsol... and didn't come up with much, mostly people asking where they can find it. Most people reply to use mineral spirits instead because they are easily available. What type of mineral spirits do you think I should use?

On a side note.. why does my engine look like that color? kind of like it was black but now turning a orange/red.

Mine is the spittin' image of yours. Mottled red. I've seen it on numerous late model MGBs. At first I thought someone had replaced the engine with a Frankenmotor. I was reassured when I saw many with the exact same paint scheme as yours and mine.

Bob

Varsol is a Canadian brand name of solvent. Dry cleaning fluid is a deodorized version of the same solvent.

Bob

crustyoldfe Wrote:

No black on my 78B

1974.5

Well,

as far as bug and tar remover... no way , lol

I decided to at least try since I have a bunch of it (get a can every year in the car detail kits my wife gets me for Christmas).

Lets just say... it does work, but it took 20 minutes of vigorous rubbing to get it off... (waiting for the comments on that sentence....lol).

Not the best angle, but my recently acquired and very original '76 roadster has the same black paint up front!

Try putting some petroleum based solvent on the black goo. Let it sit until the goo has had time to soften. You should be able to scrape most of it off with a soft plastic scraper/old credit card or whatever without scratching the paint. When most of it is removed try solvent again and a rag to wipe the paintwork clean.

Used this method to scrape away and clean the exhaust troughs on old radial aeroengines.
They were usually covered with baked on oil. Needed to clean them so we could inspect them for cracks.

We used "Varsol".

Bob

Wasper Wrote:

I tried every imaginable solvent, including Varsol, Home Depot paint thinner, goof off, lacquer thinner, acetone, etc. Varsol and paint thinner worked as well as any. I cut a 45 degree angle on a short piece of 1x2 (wood) and used that to remove heavy areas after the solvent worked for a bit.

Did get most of it off but, like someone else said, key is to get an area wet, let it soak awhile, and then rub. Also rubbed through to primer in a few spots using a stripping pad, so just used small squares of an old towel after that.

you can also try saturating a thin rag and laying it over the areea, making sure the soaked rag stays incontact with the surface, allowing it to sit and soak for a while.
This keeps the solvant in contact with the goo and doesn't let it run off or evaporate as quickly.

Warming the black goo and warm with a hair dryer may help. Not too much heat or it may smolder and ignite, though. A plastic paint scraper is probably better than anything metal if you don't want to scrape off the paint. I've worked with a heat gun in one hand and a plastic paint scraper in the other and had some luck with black goo and such.

A spray bottle of mineral spirits ought to work -- or use some spray carb cleaner or purple stuff cleaner. I've found that carb cleaner will shift the toughest gunk in an engine bay, but it works best when it's warm. You might even put a space heater in there for an hour or so to get everything nice and warmish before you go at it. Watch the fumes and keep it ventilated, though, as you don't want to ignite anything.

And there's steam cleaning with one of those portable household steam units. Sometimes those work. No fumes there.