Best Way to Clean 40+ years of Grease/Dirt/Etc.

[shamu]

Cheap oven cleaner that you buy from Dollar General. Same stuff and it works great.

 

[tasker]

Cheap oven cleaner that you buy from Dollar General. Same stuff and it works great.

hands down oven cleaner is the best, quickest and cheapest alternative. Ask Magic Man Jeff.....used it on his Wrench and Roast project and when we brought it back to the shop, people that had never seen it used were amazed....

 

[Fireball05]

Any precautions needed with oven cleaner? Or can you spray the whole underside and let it sit and work it's magic?

Also, curious to know how much more effective hot water is. Since I'm mobile, doing this at the local car wash is much preferred. I'd also be interested to hear more experiences with steam cleaning. I don't know much about that as pertains to engine and underside cleaning.

 

[shamu]

Any precautions needed with oven cleaner? Or can you spray the whole underside and let it sit and work it's magic?

Also, curious to know how much more effective hot water is. Since I'm mobile, doing this at the local car wash is much preferred. I'd also be interested to hear more experiences with steam cleaning. I don't know much about that as pertains to engine and underside cleaning.

Precautions YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you spray in on keep down wind, it will make you throw up/gag and more. It is a nasty aerisol, but the stuff is great especially if you spray it on and wait then hit the car wash with hot soapy water.
I will put it this way, I thought Izzy and Nightstick were pulling my chain when I read their post, and now it is all I use.
And it will remove paint and anodized. So Get the Krylon ready.

 

[u10072]

wire wheels wire wheels wire wheels-- take a good 4" grinder and buy about 5-10 harbor freight wire wheels, a pair of cheap welding gloves, some eye/ear protection and start getting that crud off that truck. The chemicals are great after you mechanically get all the junk off, then degrease it with the castrol purple death and then soap and water. You are now ready to paint up the underside all nice. Its going to take a solid couple of weekends of getting filthy to get it all clean. Its a mess but at least you wont have patches of stuff that wont come off like the chemicals will do and you wont be sucking in the fumes either. I call this the cheapo way to effectively and totally refurbish the underside of a vehicle. Lots of work though. Best route-- take it to a sandblaster and pay to have it all blasted.

 

[ransil]

scrape everything off dry first then go at it with any of the above wet methods, wet alone is not going to work unless you using an industrial steam cleaner.

 

[greatguy57078]

I went through my front axle awhile back then sandblasted and painted it. Now it has oil/dirt built up, so I assume that the over cleaner and a pressure wash would do. Does it leave a residue or can I blast it and let it dry and POR15 it?

 

[ILikeBond]

Wire wheels and grinding discs. Lots of elbow grease. Popeye forearms. A standard blower attachment to a compressor also does wonders for moving dust around, out of the inner frame, from the top of the frame rail, etc.

 

[galen1970b]

for caked on grime I use a razor-blade scraper. If I can find it...PENAIR and some PD-680 are pretty bad-ass solvents. I haven't found anything they wont clean.

 

[Bigbird]

galen1970b, where are you getting PD 680? I thought thet outlawed that stuff for use on aircraft?

 

[Broncobowsher]

$3 http://www.harborfreight.com/carbon-gasket-scraper-98507.html
Great for the deep stuff.

 

[Izzy]

Precautions YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you spray in on keep down wind, it will make you throw up/gag and more. It is a nasty aerisol, but the stuff is great especially if you spray it on and wait then hit the car wash with hot soapy water.
I will put it this way, I thought Izzy and Nightstick were pulling my chain when I read their post, and now it is all I use.
And it will remove paint and anodized. So Get the Krylon ready.

I'm so proud of you my little Jedi. HAHA.

As stated, Oven cleaner works wonders. It will eat paint but everything I use it on is in preparation to be painted. Since this is all underneath, just hit it with a good chassis black paint when your done and it will be clean and purty!!!

Also, it's a good idea to go under with a scraper and get all the dry clumpy stuff off first. Otherwise you'll have to use the oven cleaner method multiple times.

Good luck and have fun.

My son is watching me type this and said we can't post without using a smiley face so this is from him...