Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Anyone with a good system or product for de gunking a chassis. I have all kinds of ckaed on lube, grease, and crud everywhere. With lots of repairs in order I'd rather not be elbow deep in slime. I don't have a pressure washer, air compressor, or local do it your self car wash place. Figured someone out there has a favorite to share. Oh once its de gunked I'll need to coat it for New England winter salting, any products recommendations for that.

 

There are several threads here on degreasing and cleaning frames and parts, you might want to try the search function.

 

try "gunk" degreaser in spray cans or gallon cans,always worked good for me,or deisel fuel or kerosene also works great,let it soak a while,then scrape what you can off,then hose,repeat as necesary.
once youve got off what you can,you can use a type of oil reducer as in paint thinner or mineral spirits to remove the oil so you can wire wheel or grind or sand,the oil will ruin any one of them fast.
once youve got it clean & ready for paint,make sure you get an Epoxy type primer,its very dyrable & seals the frame from moisture,then use at will whatever you want to paint with,good luck

 

Thanks,

Just wondering if you all have ever tried spraying solvents or kerosene through a pump up spray conister like those used for weed killer? I really didn't want to buy the gallons of brake cleaner or carb cleaner that would be required at $3 a 14oz can, so the kerosene sounds like a good idea.

 

i have used both thru the pump,kerosene for degreasing & deisel for soaking logs for fence posts,when it was still legal,lol,not supposed to do it now but,anyhow,kerosene is not like gas,takes a lot to ignite,just to be safe,buy a sprayer that is made of all palstic there cheep,as far as solvents,i would personally not try it since its highly flammable in most cases,just get it by the gallons & some cheep brushes & brush it on

 

I have used several trigger spray bottles with kerosene and my 50:50 kerosene / Castrol Super Clean mix. The seals on most trigger sprayers will not stand up to strong solvents or kerosene very long.

 

I've been doing some cleanup and painting on my truck recently and found that carb cleaner works very well. Once the big stuff is scraped off, spray on the carb cleaner then wire brush the gunk. Repeat untill you are able to wipe it clean with a rag.

I only had to this twice on my truck, even on the extremely hard caked on dirt/grease stuff. It even took off the paint pretty well.

For a good rust neutralizer/inhibitor try POR15.

 

Yup. ditto on what 77 said. POR15 is good stuff for stopping and sealing rust. Just don't go overboard, you still havta get all the flakes off, it's just meant to seal minor surface rust. After that, I highly recommend Duplicolor truckbed liner for an undercoating. It's cheap, available from walmart, and takes a lickin! For the crud removal, if you use a petrol based solivent like kerosene or diesel, buy a can of goo-off to get the oil off. Personally I'd recommend simple green for the crud removal, but it would take some time and alot more effort. I'd really like to see somebody try cokacola. I've heard it's one of the best degreasers out their, but if it actually works, I'll probably never drink it again.

 

Purple Power! Just don't get it on any thing that is aluminum or magnesium. Spray on with a plastic garden sprayer, wash off with garden hose. Scrape or wire brush the caked up stuff it'l speed up the process considerably. Good luck

 

We're in the process of doing a frame up resto, and when it came to coating the frame, we hit it with POR15, then laid down the cheap "BONDO" brand do it yourself bedliner. Did the same thing to the underside of the cab, box, ect. You can throw a rock at this stuff, and it won't leave a mark. Give it a try.

 

How is it to get fastners off after coating it with bedliner. I remember back in the early 80s using the soft undercoating and it made working on stuff a lot less fun. I have a lot to do under the truck but need to drive it daily as well so I am between the rock and hard spot, don't want it to rust but not ready to but everything to bed yet. Thanks for all cleaning advice. I'll be getting after the front end pretty soon. Building up my courage to tackle the front and rear main oil seals.

 

Well, if you've got the frame stripped down, it shouldn't be an issue, you'll only be adding stuff at this point, right?

 

I am working on Bob just one part at a time. I only wish I could strip the truck to the chassis and work till it was all done. As it is I just finished wading through all the slime on the rear end, changed both axle seals and bearings which led to brake backing plates and other hardware. Now I am going to the front for the engine oil seals. From there it will be mounts and probably springs and bushings then perhaps the clutch and bell housing. In between I use the truck to take my boy to school and going to the woods to cut fence posts. Gotta do what I can when time and money allows. I can just picture getting a nice tough coat of bedliner on and then neededing to go after the tranny mount bolts.

 

Something else to consider is to use a plastic cooking pan scraper, or something similar, to scrape a lot of the thick stuff off first. Long ago I got tired of spending lots of money on cleaners or even kerosene and stinking to high heaven only to relize that the thick stuff just didn't want to come off without some elbow grease. Not too mention the environmental issues with gallons of cleaner that you then spray off and soaks into the ground, I have my own well water and the idea of that stuff eventually soaking through to my well or anyone elses didn't thrill me. Now, I just put on a pair of reusable/throw-away $5. Tyvec painters suits, safety glasses, latex gloves and with plastic scraper, screwdrivers, wooden shims or anything else that is handy I lay down on some cheap visqueen (spelling) and scrape away, then when most all of the caked on dirt is off I pull out the visqueen, quickly clean off the gunk, slide it back under the truck and THEN use some spray. This method has, in the long run, actually saved me time and money over the spray, spray, spray then spray some more method. Not too mention it is a little more environmentally friendly. Speaking of the environment, when I am all done working on my truck I then get in it and kill the birds and bugs with my air polluting 14 mpg (that last part's a joke by the way).

 

have you throught of oven cleaner. like easy off. think about it. easy off will remove grease and food that has in a way been powder coated to the inside of your oven. so it should do a good job on the grease that has been dripping and seeping from your engine.