Cleaning your undercarriage? (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 10, 2010
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Location
San Diego
No this isnt a personal hygiene question.

I want to clean up the underside of my 80 so I dont look like a crawled out of the Le Brea tar pits everytime I go under the truck. I also think it will help me identify where exactly some of my leaks are coming from. Any tips on doing this? I tried the car wash but the water sort of bounce off the greased up parts. Any cleaners out there that i can spray and rinse that are strong enough to clean things up? What about some sort of media blasting? Is that safe to do on the underside?
 
Some car wash places have a setting called ¨tire cleaner¨ which at the place by me, is a rebranded simple green, works great as a degreaser, and its pressurized.
 
I have good results with spray engine cleaner. Spray it on, drive to the car wash, spray on again, blast it off.
 
X2 on the simple green and/or green stuff at the local car wash. I'm about to do the same to see where I'm leaking from.
 
Good advise. Ill pick up a one of those big honkin bottles of simple green and hit everything. Then Ill hit the carwash and hit it again with the tire cleaner. Then Ill wash it all off with the pressure spray. Hope that does the trick.
 
What about finding your lil corner lot dealership (and maybe some big ones too) that use a steam bay for there cars that are going to the used lot. A buddy of mine used one on his CJ and lost over 300 lbs of mud and it looked great. think it was about 75 bux but they detailed the motor too and earned it on this one. When I was shopping for my 80 there was one dealer that always had nice ones but they were overly primped and polished and the motor looked like it had 4 miles on it.

same precautions apply and more so for steaming the engine bay
 
cover the dist. cap and wires...make sure you have a can of wd-40 handy in case the wires get wet...
 
I cleaned up my engine bay pretty well when the head gasket was getting done. It helps that half the parts under there are brand new. Steam cleaning for the undercarraige might be a good idea, but ill try the cheap route first. When I get ambitious Id really like to hit the whole underside with POR15 Chassis Black. Did it on my old truck and it was SO much easier to keep clean after that with the slick surface.
 
What about following up with a rattle can? If needed, minor prep with a once over with a wire/wheel or brush and then rattle can?
 
What about following up with a rattle can? If needed, minor prep with a once over with a wire/wheel or brush and then rattle can?

Rattle can wont last long under there, plus it doesnt "fill" as well as the POR15. The POR15 is like iron when its applied correctly. Ive tried both methods, and POR15 is ginormously better than anything I have found in a rattlecan. Id rather do it once correctly.
 
Awesome info, thank you! You mind sharing how many clams I will have to shell out for thier services? Looks like it would be a good place to go in prep for the POR15.

It was $40 for the engine and $40 for the undercarriage. After seeing the guy standing under my rig covered from head to toe in Cruiser goo I decided it was well worth it.
 
I'm in the same boat. Started on my front axle service and found this.

DSCN0232_002.JPG

The front pinion seal is bad and has thrown grease from one side of the truck to the other. You should see the knuckles! I picked up a hot water garden hose and some Simple Green. I'll run the hose from the laundry room and I hope the heat and degreaser will do the trick. It's a good thing I was able to participate in the Just Differentials gear deal. :grinpimp:

This also brings up an enviro-ethical question. Since I'm doing this in my driveway the runoff will go to the storm drain. Anyway to minimize the oil/grease/cleaner in the runoff?
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Does anyone know any undercarriage cleaning place in Los Angeles? If not it looks like I have to make a trip to San Diego.
 
Orange hand cleaner, start scrubbing and have a spray bottle ready to spray. Oh, yeah. get a drip pan also for all the grease that's going to run down. best thing i ever used.
 
FYI Must semi truck dealers can give you a lead on a steam cleaner that can get it done right.
 
simple green, brake cleaner, and a heated pressure washer took my new to me rig out of the grease pit and into a semi-clean state. at least I can roll under and not have black streaks when I come out now.
 

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