I've been to Speed Week once before with friends...now I'm taking my car and want to protect it from salt. I've heard spraying down the fender wells and such helps but can't remember what's best to use...Was it Pam...or WD40?...Please refresh my memory....thanks....Jim
Not sure the best trick for spraying them down, but when I was there 2011, there were guys with pressure washers when you were leaving spraying down the cars for some money. We left out of South Carolina on motorcycles, but found a car wash locally to spray the bikes off after being on the salt in town. There is salt everywhere and in every parking lot. Hope you have fun attending.
Pressure wash it off when you are home. I am there now, and we did not do a single thing to the trucks or trailers to prep them.
It all depends on how wet it is. Last year was my first and I thought it was just plain dry. I used a beater VW Baja on the salt and cleaned it when I got home. I also used a product I use on my boat called Salt Away just because and there wasn't that much on the motor & trans to speak of.
Seems like I remember a photo of someone after being at Bonneville putting his car on jack stands in the driveway with one of those old fashioned back and forth lawn sprinklers running under it for a week.
Back in 2008 or 2009 I went and got a gallon can of WD-40 and a spray bottle. I put my Ranger up on jack stands and sprayed the full underside and back side of the bumpers. I sprayed it up in the wheelwells the rockers , literally anywhere I could access. when we drove out of the salt flats we stopped and walked around the truck banging on the sides and around the wheel openings and hardly anything fell out. When I got home I did as Boatmark mentioned , and out the truck back up on jackstands and kept moving a sprinkler around underneath it. Hardly anything washed out. One other thing is keep your speed down on the salt and less will spray up.
Salt away, as mentioned by Never2old. We wash the car, trailer and tow vehicle just prior to leaving the salt ( we bring our own power washer and 50 gal. water supply) to hopefully leave the salt where it belongs. Then we go to the car wash in town and do it again. When we get home and can separate everything, car, trailer, tow vehicle, we wash it all again, with the body of the car removed. We have still seen chuncks of salt falling on to the drive way six months down the road. The best way to keep the salt off, is to keep off the salt. Good luck.
Do all suggested above but don't think you will get out with no damage. The salt gets into everything and washing it just drives it in. If you can't put up with some damage don't go.
Do not use high pressure! We set a small sprinkler under the truck and let gravity work. I do it over 2 evenings and move the sprinkler around every 20 minutes or so. After several years I have learned where the salt hides and make sure to check those spots.
I spray a coating of salt a wAy before going to the salt. Try to get as much salt off of truck before leaving salt. Then using salt away when i get home. Followed by a couple of hours of sprinklers under the vehicle. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
As has been posted don't use a pressure washer. It only drive salt into the crevices. There are guys as you leave the salt with a pressure washer. They will get the worst of the salt off but they are not a "detail" crew. The cost last year was $25. How much salt you bring home depends on the condition of the salt. A couple of years ago the salt was dry and I didn't bring too much home. Last year the salt was wet(ish) and I brought a good bit home. Get out the back and forth sprinkler and leave in a spot for an hour or so and move it. Then get under and check. Use the hose to remove any salt that the sprinklers didn't get. Just remember. The salt is not a death sentence to your car.
^^^^^^^^^^What Bill said, the salt is not a death sentence! We drive in far worse here with the mag water sprayed during the winter.
I took this picture of the Plymouth on the salt in 2005 or 2006. The car had a nasty hit in 2011, and when ElPolacko and I were whackin' on it to straighten the frame in early 2012, a large chunk of salt fell out of one of the frame rails... It isn't a death sentence.
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