Could you warm it up and keep scraping and picking?

 

You'll probably have to try some pretty strong cleaners if you don't want to use elbow grease. Acetone might clean the residue out. A wire wheel in a drill motor will also get a lot of it, and since you wont have to worry about paint it should work well.
The guys who put windshields in use some sort of solvent to clean the track, and you might call the local auto glass shop and ask what they use.

 

I was thinking of getting a reciprocating saw and the attachments Lowes has been advertising. One of them is a scraper, and the other is a metal brush. Both go in any saw. That may work on the interior on some of the crap stuck to it as well. My problem with using elbow grease is that I just don't have that much grease left in my elbows and shoulder on the right side. So, it won't get me far unfortunatly.

My progress today was the dash. I got it out, though the steering wheel is still in place. What I found out was that the interior wasn't black originally. It was a light brown/tan. What it looks like the guys before me did was spray paint everything black lol. They didn't even take anything out to do it. Just sprayed it in place.

 

Good job on the progress, I've been going back and forth over removing the dash and doing the new harness now or later on. I certainly have enough things going on now anyway. Are you able to hold a grinder with wire wheel? That's what I've been using and it works well. The whole firewall was covered in undercoatng and it's now shining like new money! I haven't taken the windshield out either though so I'm not real sure what you're dealing with there. Heck, I still haven't figured out how to remove the medal window trims on the windshield and back window!

Your dash sounds like the engine bay in my Camaro. The engine was painted while still in the car with all hoses/cables/brackets etc still attached and they didn't even bother to degrease it! Not sure what goes through someone's mind when they do things like this. Then again, the PO actually painted the entire car without removing a thing so it wasn't a one-time ignorant attack either.

I have a few "real" black extra dash parts if you're in need of anything when you get things figured out.

 

To remove the trim peices, I ended up hitting the edges with something soft and a mallet. Once I loosened them I pried them off carefully. I broke a few retainer clips getting them up but, most of them are in tact. Once I got them off, I couldn't see a way to get them off without some gentle prying.

I should be able to run a wheel off of my drill gun to get the stuff off. I was thinking the saw though because I'd need it to help cut out the 2 spots that need to be cut out and replaced.

We had a guy up the road from her parents place that rattle canned a full size car flat black. It looked so so from further then 20' away. Within that distance though, you can see the spray lines and part of the old color (white) under the flat black. I've seen a couple more like that since as well.

My interior peices are going to be used as molds for the final product. I have a friend that is an aerospace engineer and knows how to work with carbon fiber really well. When it comes time, I'm going to have him come over and walk me though casting the interior panels in carbon fiber. Both for long term durability and the look as well. The peices I have (especially the dash) are pretty brittle. The dash itself has some cracking in the top part around the gauge shroud.

 

Unless you're taking the undercoating off just because you want to, it really can stay if the floor is good. You can cut out the bad spots and then just remove around the edges so you can tack in the new metal. Taking it all off is a lot of unecessary work, unless you just like it bare.

 

I used a propane torch and a 1 1/2" putty knife to get the goop off my floor. It took forever. My car was gutted so it catching on fire wasnt a biggie but it does burn. I then wiped with Goof Off. That stuff works very well.

 

I'm going to be putting down Dynamat under everything else. I am going to be stripping the floor to the metal as well. There is a lot of grime and surface rust that needs to come out. It's at a pretty even distribution unfortunatly as well. My dad has a sand blaster that I can use to make the stripping easy though. So, once I get the tougher stuff up, the stripping should go smooth. I'd prefer to repaint it myself as well, so I know it's done properly. It would bug me if I didn't. That's where the slight OCD comes in though...

 

Here's a news flash. The sand will bounce right off the RUBBERIZED undercoating. Its a waste of time. Burn it. Make sure the windows are open.

 

Wasn't planning on blasting the rubber off...