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SSDutch came with a Herculined interior, which I hate.  It’s rough on the skin, and traps dirt and dust in such that it always looks dirty.  I’d like to get it out of there over this winter.  Since there were a ton of writeups on applying it, but none on removing it I thought I’d experiment a bit and post the results here.

Edit/add - the previous owner of SSDutch let me know this was Durabak, rather than Herculiner.  I think the products are about the same thing, so this information should apply to either one.

The approaches I tried included:

• Brake Fluid
• Acetone
• POR Solvent
• Aircraft Remover
• Strypeeze

Here are my results in order of effectiveness (note - I didn’t apply the Herculiner, so have no idea of how well prepped the Jeep was):

Acetone:
Hardly effective at all.  Evaporated too quickly to really soften the Herculiner.  Scraping the spot with a screwdriver felt the same as an untreated spot:

POR Solvent:
Evaporated more slowly than the acetone, but still not very effective on the Herculiner:

Brake Fluid:
Not bad - very slow evaporation rate allowed it to soak into the Herculiner.  After a half hour or so I was able to scrape up large chunks with a putty knife.  I think this would be a cost-effective way of lifting the Herculiner off flat surfaces, not sure how it would work on vertical surfaces like the side of wheelwells:

Strypeeze
Very effective -after 15 minutes of laying on the Herculiner I was able to scrape off nice sections.  The Strypeeze is thick enough that it will probably work on vertical surfaces too.  Seemed to take off the Herculiner while leaving the paint underneath on.

Aircraft Remover
The most effective - the Aircraft Remover was actually lifting the Herculiner off after 20 minutes or so.  Took the paint off underneath as well.

Based on these results I’ll probably use the Strypeeze since it was very effective, left more of the underlying paint on, and isn’t quite as noxious as the Aircraft remover.  I might use brake fluid on the larger horizontal surfaces since it’s quite a bit cheapear than the Strypeeze though.

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Tim Russell on January 30, 2007

   I just found this site while looking for sites about the cj6, not many out there.  I have a 66 that i have just a started the restoaration on.  Do you know of sites where we can find chat, info and help for us beginers.  I have found parts web sites.  Looks like you’ve got a good jeep to start with.  good luck.

   Tim

2. Michael Boyink (Author) on January 30, 2007

   Hi Tim -

   http://www.earlycj5.com is the site you want - it’s the best early CJ site on the net, if not the best Jeep site on the net.  I’m a moderator over there - come check it out!

   Just be forewarned…the guys like pics…;)

3. Garrett on January 30, 2007

   Damn, that looks like a real sh*t job. I’m actually in the process of doing the opposite project…not Herculiner, but I’m putting POR15 on the underside of my rusty heap.  I’ll be adding some info to my site (http://www.JeepReviews.com) when I’m done…it’s not going to be a fun project either.

   Good luck.

4. Boyink (Author) on February 12, 2007

   An update to this post:  After all pontificating about which chemical to use, in the end a braided wire wheel on a 4” angle grinder has proved to be the best way of removing the Durabak. 

   It does come off more easily where I had treated it with brake fluid, but the brake fluid made it a much messier job.

5. Cameron on October 01, 2008

   You may want to avoid using brake fluid, as it soaks into the pores of the metal and can effect the durability of whatever you put on after it is removed. I am not sure, but there is probably some chemical to use on the stripped-with-brake-fluid metal to prep it for whatever you want.

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