Melted Plastic Bag - How to get off stainless exhaust!!!!!

HerrDeacon

HerrDeacon

Over 1,000 Posts
All week I've been smelling something burning my car, smelled like burned plastic. I thought it may be the abs pipe that I'm using as the turbo intake but everyday I came home I checked it and it was ice cold. Also, the smell didn't seem to be coming from the engine bay. Was then worried that it may be something I couldn't readily see (i.e. wiring, etc).

On the way home today I remembered that I drove over a plastic bag the other day. I looked in the rear view mirror to see if it came out but it never. It turns out that it stuck to the exhaust (right after the catalytic converter). It is totally melted on!!!!! :mad:

Anyone know any tricks to getting this off? Can't be too good for my health breathing this everyday. :p
 
This is why we should all go green.

As for getting the plastic off , run the car till it gets real hot and then rub real hard with the palm of your hand.
It will take some of the plastic off and the third degree burns will hurt like hell and require some sort of hospitalization. Or try the sulfuric acid and palm method. Both have similar results.

Cheers
 
Actually 3rd degree burns don't hurt - all the nerves are burnt to a crisp. 2nd degree burns are the painful ones - go ahead, ask me how I know ;) Ever grab a camping griddle off a campfire with your bare hand? Not sure what I was thinking, but man oh man, did that hurt. All the skin on the inside of my hand - palm, fingers, all of it, bubbled up and eventually peeled off. They wrapped my hand up with cabbage leaves. Have no idea why. I was a camp counsellor at the time - kids heard a mouthful that trip.
 
paulb said:
As for getting the plastic off , run the car till it gets real hot and then rub real hard with the palm of your hand.
It will take some of the plastic off and the third degree burns will hurt like hell and require some sort of hospitalization. Or try the sulfuric acid and palm method. Both have similar results.
Click to expand...

Hey Paul, just tried the method you suggested and it never really worked. Can't go into details because I can hear the ambulance coming down the street now. I'll update you when they release me. ;D ;D ;D ;D
 
I'd try and take a wire brush to it, not a stainless brush, but something a little less abrasive.
 
Tintin said:
Take a blowtorch to it and burn it off once and for all.
Click to expand...

Good advise there! Maybe if you can cut the plastic away with a utility knife(when it's cold heh), the rest will burn off in a short time. I'm guessing that you have the prob solved already right?
 
When you get down to the burnt on stuff take a single sided razor blade and "shave" burnt remains off. Hold the blad almost parallel to the pipe and it will shave off.
 
my car sits fairly low and the exhaust sits even lower, same thing happen to me... i finally just crawled under my car one day after running it for a while and used a wire brush to get off as much as i could. if your worried about scratching up the exhaust the blow torch method seems like it would work, just wear a mask... that stuff smells horrible.

its safe to say i now avoid all plastic bags in the road... i look like a idiot swerving for a bag, im sure but if i don't its almost a gauranteed stick the way my exhaust runs.
 
904cafe said:
my car sits fairly low and the exhaust sits even lower, same thing happen to me... i finally just crawled under my car one day after running it for a while and used a wire brush to get off as much as i could. if your worried about scratching up the exhaust the blow torch method seems like it would work, just wear a mask... that stuff smells horrible.

its safe to say i now avoid all plastic bags in the road... i look like a idiot swerving for a bag, im sure but if i don't its almost a gauranteed stick the way my exhaust runs.
Click to expand...

Yeah, mine is extremely low too. I tried avoiding it but I think it was trying to commit suicide and I couldn't save it. ;D
 
ya they are the devil... any debri for that matter is. not to long ago i hit a rock on the expressway that was maybe a little larger than a softball and it completely flattened a section of my exhaust. not to get off topic but what kinda car do you drive? i have a 94 Prelude, suspension all decked out cuz auto-x is another hobby of mine.
 
904cafe said:
ya they are the devil... any debri for that matter is. not to long ago i hit a rock on the expressway that was maybe a little larger than a softball and it completely flattened a section of my exhaust. not to get off topic but what kinda car do you drive? i have a 94 Prelude, suspension all decked out cuz auto-x is another hobby of mine.
Click to expand...

I have a '93 240sx and I used to auto-x as well but have been unable to the past two years because of my schedule. Would love to get back into it though.
 
very cool, i was actually just out last sunday... a 240 with a SR20 swap just happens to be in my class... s14 though.
 
oven cleaner and crumpled tin-foil,should take it off without scratching the pipes.Just be careful not to get it on anything else and rinse well.
 
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