Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

[Mark P.]

As part of my engine and transmission swap project, I am now cleaning up the chassis and under body of my C1 driver and wanted any advice on how best to remover the 50 years or dirt, grease and grime. The exhaust system, engine and transmission have been removed. The car is a California car with only some light surface rust. I posted a couple pictures to show the condition.

In small areas I was able to scrape the 1/16 to 1/8 layer of crud then wipe it down with paint thinner. The fiberglass has a nice yellow and smooth surface. I was able to scrape most of the heavy stuff from the rest of the underbody in a few hours.

The challenge is with the chassis and some of the nooks and crannies between the chassis and body.

Has anyone had good or bad experiences with a power washer ? Not sure what it would do to fiberglass. The main reason I was thinking of using it would be to clean up the frame. I'll then go over it with paint thinner and eventually will apply POR-15 on the chassis.

I don't want to do a body off due to time constraints and want to enjoy the car for now. I was hoping to get the chassis looking decent in a few long weekends.

[Terry D.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Mark

Without taking things apart it is hard to get it to look good, clean as best you can, drive it and enjoy it. If someone looks under your car and complains, tell them when ever they have the time they can help you take it apart and clean it. These cars were built to br driven, drive it!

Just my old 2 cents
Terry

[Paul J.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Mark:

Paint thinner is not your best degreaser. Even products like Gunk's Engine Degreaser do a better job. I'm not sure if you can get any good degreasing chemicals in CA like Toluene, but one of your fellow Californians has used Chemtool with good success. Go to mckennasgarage.com and look at some of his 59 Cadillac restoration. This was mostly a frame on restoration with a little more disassembly than your planning. Unfortunaley he's cut the size of the website down and lost a lot of detail like working rusty areas over with a wire brush on a drill and thinning down POR 15 to let it flow into cracks that he can't reach.

I would'nt worry about damaging the "glass" with a pressure washer, although I don't think you need that much pressure. Use a wider (reduced pressure) nozzle and keep it moving. With a good degreaser and a putty knife or a wire brush, you don't need a lot of water pressure to get the residue off. I've always used a garden hose.

I agree with you that you should take this opportunity to freshen the chassis up a bit. Most people preffer a "clean machine".

Paul

[Wayne P.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Mark I use brake cleaner to get the crusted oil off. Lots of rags.
Good luck.
The pics look clean to me.

[Joe C.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

I had ServPro clean mine.
They did a nice, tidy job.
Spiffy in a jiffy.

Seriously, the most aggressive degreaser you can find is acetone, next would be lacquer thinner...............if you want to remove paint, too. If not, then use gas. I buy cheap lacquer thinner in 5 gallon cans for big jobs like degreasing large items. It will attack your skin, so wear gloves. It will attack nitrile rubber gloves, too. Fireball orange gloves work best.

[Terry M.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

You really ought to think twice about POR-15. That stuff is very difficult to remove, and if you or someone else decides to do a frame off in the future they will curse you forever.

One of our first rules ought to be to do no harm. Procedures that are difficult to reverse should only be used as a last resort. Please think about it.

Edit add: We are only custodians of these cars. Unless one has plans to be buried in the car, it will outlive us. I suggest we should take a longer view of what we do.

[Dick G.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

I work at a coal mine. The best little cleaner in a windex type of despenser, is a product called (Lloyd's) out of Minnesotoa. It is a citrus cleaner. Truly impressive. Google for a vendor. I think ours comes from General Trading Co. here in Bismarck, North Dakota. I also have used other citrus cleaners with great results, like Big Orange purchased at Menards. Scrape off what you can and spray on the citrus. Have fun. DG

[Mark P.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I was planning to spray everything with GUNK then after letting it sit will use a hot water pressure washer. I'll then follow up with a wire brush on the metal then rags and solvent on the metal and the fiberglass. I'll look into some of the citrus and other degreasers mentioned.

I'll revisit the POR-15 and do some research. I'll probably do a body-off in 10 or more years so I don't want to create more work for me. Just want something that looks nice and protects the frame. I have no plans to drive it in the rain so I might just use a rattle can or something like a PPG product I can spray with my compressor.

[Roy B.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Rent a steam cleaner does a great job a no brainier

[Ridge K.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Mark, please allow me to throw in a quick safety message to a fellow "do-it-yourselfer", from a retired firefighter.
Using flammable liquids such as lacquer thinner, or common gasoline, within the confined space of your garage or shop, can be extremely dangerous. Everyone knows that gasoline burns, but some are not aware that actually, the flammable liquid isn't what is burning, it's the vapors released by the flammable liquid when mixed with air, to form... the correct mixture that will burn. That's how it can sneak up on you. You think you are being careful to not spill, etc.,...yet the vapors are present. Add into this mix, an ignition source you're not thinking of (hot water tank burner, electical spark, or a buddy walking in with a cigarette or cigar, and you're world can come crashing down).
Last word I'll say: as a young firefighter back in the mid to late 1970s, I responded to a young man who was cleaning with lacquer thinner in an enclosed space, until someone opened a sink faucet, and the hot water tank burner fired up. The resulting quick flash fire had unbelievable consequences. I covered that young man's 2nd and 3rd degree burns with cold, wet sterile dressings (the procedure in the late 1970s), and held his hand in comfort until he could be loaded in an ambulance for the 15 minute ride to the burn center of a local hospital. He kept pleading with me for assurance he would survive, and I firmly gave that assurance he needed.
I called the burn center staff later that evening to check on this young man, that I couldn't quit thinking about. They regretfully, informed me that he had in fact expired due to the effects of inhaling the rapidly burning fumes into his lungs, during the few seconds of flashover. He couldn't be saved from his lungs filling with his own body's fluids.
Don't be the one who thinks it will never happen to you. be EXTREMELY CAREFUL when using flammable liquids inside garages, or shop buildings.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
Ridge.

[John F.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Hear! Hear! (Firefighter USAF 66-70). Don't mess with flammable iiquids under anything.

John

[Mark P.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Ridge - thanks for the advice. Is there much risk of fire from using paint thinner to clean parts in a garage with the the garage door opened 10 feet or so from a gas water heater with a lit pilot light ?

Mark

[Steven B.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

I work at a coal mine. The best little cleaner in a windex type of despenser, is a product called (Lloyd's) out of Minnesotoa. It is a citrus cleaner. Truly impressive. Google for a vendor. I think ours comes from General Trading Co. here in Bismarck, North Dakota. I also have used other citrus cleaners with great results, like Big Orange purchased at Menards. Scrape off what you can and spray on the citrus. Have fun. DG

The citrus cleaners worked very well for me! Also, when I worked at an airport in my youth we (I got stuck iwth the job) used to degrease under bellies with a new product that came in a 55 gal. drum and did not harm the painted finish. It is known as Mr. Clean.

Good Luck!

steve

[Stewart A.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Mark, I just did a resto on a Mad Max car in Aussie. I hung plastic all around the bottom of the car so it touched the ground. I bought a hand held media blaster, which costs about 25 bucks around 50 for a bag of media. The areas I could see that had surface rust on it I media blasted and with gunk areas I used scrappers and chemicals and even paint stripper in sections. It requires a good respirator and googles. This was a resto like your doing. After cleaning up the media which was well confined in the igloo I sprayed it with a home brew of chassis paint. It now looks like a body off car. It only took 2 days over the weekend and was worth every bit of labour. We had a christmas break up party and had 100 people in the workshop looking under the car it was still on the hoist. They all said this must of taken months to do. So I was happy with all the comments. Stewy

[Ridge K.]

Re: Chassis Cleaning Advice Needed

Ridge - thanks for the advice. Is there much risk of fire from using paint thinner to clean parts in a garage with the the garage door opened 10 feet or so from a gas water heater with a lit pilot light ?

Mark

Mark, there is some risk. It is a huge variable as to what mixture of flammable fumes to air might go up, but, one's life is a lot to risk.
I'm not telling anyone to not use flammable liquids such as paint thinners, and even gasoline to not clean parts. I've done it myself, but,..........I never do it inside a garage or shop that has a flame burning such as a hot water heater.
While building my own personal home, I put a gas fired hot water tank inside the house, in a secure hot water heater closet (fresh air intake piped from the attic). I deliberately kept it out of the garage, as well as the two natural gas fired furnaces I have. I realize that this is not always possible for everyone.
If I'm ever in someone else's garage or shop working, with the possibility of open flame, I move the work outdoors. Another good reason to keep your car under restoration as a "roller" as much as you can.
In short, if I had the hot water tank in the garage, I would not risk my life on the "open door" guaranty. Not trying to preach to anyone here. Just would hate to hear of one of my fellow NCRS members seriously injured, or killed while using flammable liquids in a dangerous enviroment. We're all 21 or older, except a handful of our younger generation who we're lucky to have as the "carry-on" tradition. Don't risk your life for a parts cleaning.
Well,....... enough said.
Keep us posted on your progress. I love your attitude about "I'm going to enjoy driving the Corvette".
Ridge