When faced with the job of getting off 50-plus years of caked on grease and dirt, what secret brews/methods etc does everyone use? There must be a better way than the scrape- squirt with diesel/gas, etc, scrape again method. I was thinking of investing in one of those pressure - cleaner gizmo's, but would like some spiritual guidance.
I have used the pressure washer. They aren't that expensive and they get a lot of the crap off. Just be prepared to get a lot of it on you because it goes everywhere. And you can use it to clean your driveway afterwards
Scraping it first is the quickest and cheapest and least messy. Having some scrapers that fit, reach, and up to the task is way better than a single 5 in one putty knife that sorta fits everywhere but no where. Taking it apart and Into the parts washer is really quite economical to get everything cleaned and detailed perfectly and it gets all rebuilt or inspected meticulously
Try and locate someone with a Steam Jenny, just like a pressure washer but the steam makes it much more efficient. If you have to drive the vehicle after using one don't do so unless you lube everything first.
Simple green, brass brushes, scotch Brite pads, and a hot water pressure washer. If you can only get a cold water pressure washer I like to rig up a rubber hose to the shop sink for hot water. Hope this helps
The chemicals are good, they ain't cheap are messy coming off and they penetrate just the surface of the crud. Why anyone would take a brush and smear 1/4" of crud around ? Why would anyone blast the mess all over Gods green earth and all over the clean parts of the carat 3500 psi? Is it not a bigger job to clean up the once caked on crud from 10,000 square feet than if it were on the suspension parts? Scrape it off, get the spoils contained and away so you're not reworking the crud, spreading the crud, handle the crud just once, then use your chemicals. Brake cleaner works well, catch the run off in a tub and re use it with a parts cleaner brush cleaner. Ask your parts house for the commercial case price on brake cleaner.
I haven't found the pressure washer to be very handy for chassis cleaning. I prefer taking it in small chunks with a few different straight blade screwdrivers, putty knifes and a bunch of rags to catch the semi-liquid bits. The plus side is that you get to spend some time inspecting the underside of the car and making a mental list for other maintenance or improvements.
A pair of ramps, a set of wheel chocks for the back wheels, a large tarp that you can throw away when you're done, a few different size scrapers, a gallon of kerosene and a stiff bristle brush, lots of rags, a good pair of rubber gloves. Pretty much self explanatory..... Scrape, soak with kerosene, scrape some more, wipe up mess as you go along, soak with kerosene again using the brush, wipe with rags, repeat as needed. Be sure to get one of those disposable coveralls from a paint or hardware store along with eye protection. Be sure to dispose of rags safely as they are now quite flammable!!!!!!! Have at it. I'm sure someone will add something to this. KK
My Ford was caked with eons of spider nests and grease. The spider nests I power washed off. I shot the bottom of the floor and chassis with Krud Kutter and let it soak in. That was putty knife action for the most part and I would recommend putting down a throwaway tarp first. Followed by more KK and a wire brush and finally a wire wheel. Washed down the last with mineral spirits and old rags.
I once worked in a machine shop and one of my jobs was steam cleaning caked on crud off of tractors before we rebuilt them. The steam cleaner made easy work out of it. If you can find someone that does that then it would be a piece of cake I think.
I've loaded my pile of stuff/car/parts etc. into the pick-up or onto the trailer and carted them down to a local unmanned coin op...and had at them. They have a variety of engine clean/real soapy settings and generally have much higher pressure than the cheap home based pressure washers. Then the resulting run off is not on your driveway (lots of honey points there!)...you'll still need to scrape, sandblast, wire wheel etc...but it gets the big lumps off...oh yeah...you will be wet and dirty for the ride home...so bring a garbage bag or something to sit on if you care at all about your daily driver seats.
First get the car up on blocks high enough to get under it easy and have room to move your arms and roll around. I found an old and/or cheap flexible steel putty knife works the best. On a bench grinder put a big radius on the tip and sharpen the whole edge pretty good. Not shaving sharp but sharp. An old paint scraper can work on straight and flat areas. If you grind off the scraper corners to prevent gouging. I even reshaped butter knife tip to match the radius of some old crossmember lip. For clean up put a plastic drop cloth under the area helps a lot. The thick stuff. Used and free is even better. After you scraped everything clean. Then you degrease. Steam and "Rig Wash" is best I have found. Hot water pressure wash (Coin Op Car Wash) works OK with your liquid degreaser sprayed on. "Spic and Span" powder, a stiff long handle tire brush and boiling water works good for small areas and parts you can remove. Like A arms, steering gear and spindles. Getting enough boiling water can be a problem. A hose hooked up to your house's water heater drain works in a pinch. But only 120F. Once you have everything degreased then you can break out the wire brush and solvents. Guys go straight to a grinder with a wire wheel and just make a God awful mess. Smear and sling crap everywhere.
scrape it. take it to the car wash, hose it down with easy off and pressure wash away. I used to get some kitchen degreaser at sams club, it was nasty, itd take paint down to bare metal, it burned your lungs, it burned your skin. they don't sell it anymore. had to be super careful, but boy it took off grease like nothing else!
A big old card board box-like one from a refrigerator works great spread out underneath to collect the crap you are scraping off-but as mentioned by some one else-if you drop the front suspension out-you can inspect and repair/rebuild/detail it at the same time-if it has that much crap on it-its time to have a close look at it anyway.
I had mine on jack stands and all 4 wheels off, great access. I tried to pressure wash off the grime after soaking in Krud Kutter, but it was partially a success. Steam cleaning would be the way to go. I did talk to having someone media blast the chassis after I got it mostly cleaned off, but he wanted $500. This was from the cross member forward.
Well, I did learn a trick to getting big chunks of crud off (baked-on grease/dirt)- hit it with a heat gun, the grease will start to go liquid, and while it is hot and soft, go to it with a wire brush. If you get the stuff hot enough, you can brush it out of exposed threads, leaving them nice'n clean.
I just did mine with Easy Off Oven Cleaner and it worked great. I applied 3 coats and just rinsed it off between each coat with a garden hose. It took all of the paint and grease off. I would wipe any big globs off to start with, but other than that just spray and hose off a few times until clean. I let each coat soak for about 8 hours. Once all of the paint and grease were off of it, I used a right angle die grinder and 3M Scotch Brite discs to clean the rust.
Keep your eye on sales at "Tractor Supply", and pick up a 5 gallon bucket of Elbow Grease. Takes a while, but it's the cheapest way out. (Oh, yeah-- and save your old newspapers)
Rent an industrial power washer. Do not squirt your hand.LOL You can rent a professional power washer for a day. They usually have a gas motor and make around 1200-1500 PSI. Wear safety glasses at the very least when using it and remember that it is going to blow crap everywhere. They will even strip old paint.LOL
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