Ran over a dry cleaning plastic bag that caught part of my exhaust and melted on it before I could get stopped. Now it is hard as a rock. Any ideas about how to get it off without a grinder or Dremel?
heat it back up and use putty knife? Regardless you will scratch your exhaust.. I had this happen on some chrome exhaust tubes nothing would get it off
As for getting the plastic off, it won't/can't form a molecular bond with the metal, so leave it hard & peel it off in chunks. You REALLY don't want to melt/soften it again! I've found that leaving it to cool/get cold & then picking/peeling it off in chunks using a blunt tool to prise up an edge works best for plastic that's melted on. Once it's cool, most plastics will come off fairly readily, but it is a painstaking process! If you melt it or soften it again, it goes all sticky and gets EVERYWHERE, and sticks to you and everything else it touches, tripling the mess!!
Still, plastic is far easier to get off than the exploded guts of old road-kill once that's baked on!! That stuff can STINK, I've had people RUN away from my vehicle due to the strench of burnt on road-kill; and I kid you not, on one occasion that happened to my 4WD Truck, it stunk so much that I whimped out, and just cut the exhaust right off, tossed it (a looong way off too! ) and replaced the whole exhaust rather than putting myself thru removing the baked on intestines & putting up with the smell until it cleared! Just imagine this swollen & decaying donkey going 'BANG' Peeling 'hard' plastic off is EASY by comparison!
Enjoy!
Last edited by Peter Aawen; 09-16-2020 at 10:22 PM.
As for getting the plastic off, it won't/can't form a molecular bond with the metal, so leave it hard & peel it off in chunks. You REALLY don't want to melt/soften it again! I've found that leaving it to cool/get cold & then picking/peeling it off in chunks using a blunt tool to prise up an edge works best for plastic that's melted on. Once it's cool, most plastics will come off fairly readily, but it is a painstaking process! If you melt it or soften it again, it goes all sticky and gets EVERYWHERE, and sticks to you and everything else it touches, tripling the mess!!
Still, plastic is far easier to get off than the exploded guts of old road-kill once that's baked on!! That stuff can STINK, I've had people RUN away from my vehicle due to the strench of burnt on road-kill; and I kid you not, on one occasion that happened to my 4WD Truck, it stunk so much that I whimped out, and just cut the exhaust right off, tossed it (a looong way off too! ) and replaced the whole exhaust rather than putting myself thru removing the baked on intestines & putting up with the smell until it cleared! Just imagine this swollen & decaying donkey going 'BANG' Peeling 'hard' plastic off is EASY by comparison!
Enjoy!
ENJOY!! God Petter after reading this one it made my coffee taste bad!!!! I wonder if dry ice would help!! Get it really cold it may snap off easyer!
Plastic coated exhaust - how do I get it off??
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If you melt it or soften it again, it goes all sticky and gets EVERYWHERE, and sticks to you and everything else it touches, tripling the mess!! 
That stuff can STINK, I've had people RUN away from my vehicle due to the strench of burnt on road-kill; and I kid you not, on one occasion that happened to my 4WD Truck, it stunk so much that I whimped out, and just cut the exhaust right off, tossed it (a looong way off too! 
) and replaced the whole exhaust rather than putting myself thru removing the baked on intestines & putting up with the smell until it cleared! 
Peeling 'hard' plastic off is EASY by comparison! 
Originally Posted by Peter Aawen
I wonder if dry ice would help!! Get it really cold it may snap off easyer!
