Any Words of Encouragement ?

[frankdatank01]

Well,
My truck is moving at a snail pace. I am at the stage to upgrade the front end parts and possible add front disks.

But there is alot of gunk........I am not looking forward to this.

[lowriden58]

couple things that would make that easy to clean... goto a dollar store and pick up a few cans of Oven cleaner, let that soak for a bit. then hit it with a pressure washer. I like to use simple green in the pressure washer to help degrease also.


Oh and if you dont have a pressure washer, you could trailer it to a DIY carwash and use theirs

[bad6772]

Great Advice...And good luck.....You will have that thing looking great in no time....

[jsmithbm]

Ah man just wire brush all that. LOL JK. Pressure washer would be nice, i have heard that diesel fuel helps as well as some other harsh chemicals. After you get the big stuff off you could use one of those portable torches (lowes sells them it has the bottle and head about 20 bucks) and use an array of puddy knifes or an electric angle grinder with a wire wheel. I am going to tackle some that this weekend myself.

[PanelDeland]

Lay a cardboard box underneath it.Then bring a container of hand cleaner, a bucket of water and a junk towel out to the garage.Get into the toss away clothes and put a pair of shorts with the towel.Take a pair of safety glasses and a scraper and wire brush under there with you.Scrape, wire brush and repeat.You will spend most of a day doing it.Then use the hand cleaner to clean your hands, the bucket of water to wash off a bit with and then put on the shorts and toss the clothes.Now you can do the oven cleaner and pressure washing.
Keeping the mess out of the house is the key to good family relationships.

[hgs_notes]

I'm not sure where you are in the project, but it's not that much work to just pull the cab off and drag it to the sandblasters for a thorough cleaning. My son(13) and I took my whole running truck apart in a weekend and had the frame blasted and painted shortly after. It cost about $200.

[crm318]

Are those Buick exhaust manifolds?

[my67c20]

I know what you are up against and let me tell you it ain't fun. I just went through this and i started out with the wire brush and putty knife program, listening to the air compressor cycle every 2 seconds, getting covered in gunk.

Never again will i do that. Partly because i will not allow my vehicle to get like that but also because i found the power of dollar store oven cleaner. I still had the trans crossmember, area around the carrier bearing and the firewall to do. I sprayed the cleaner on let sit for about an hour pressure washed and after just one application i got the frame cleaner than with the previous method. For tough areas i just repeated as needed. Total cleaning time less than 2 hours. After that first layer was off i could spot treat and sit for about 15 minutes.

For a total of 4 dollars i got more done in 2 hours than the previous 5 days. Also i actually found the original paint and it actually is in good shape.

Now i will hit the frame with some scotchbrite then i am going to apply eastwoods gloss frame resto and rust encapsilator kit.

If you don't own a pressure washer go to any home store and spend the money on a good one. Can always find a use for one.

Also i tried the Easy Off products and i will never buy that junk again smelled nice cost too much and did not work. Dollar store is the way to go.

[jbristo67]

Originally Posted by jsmithbm

Ah man just wire brush all that. LOL JK. Pressure washer would be nice, i have heard that diesel fuel helps as well as some other harsh chemicals. After you get the big stuff off you could use one of those portable torches (lowes sells them it has the bottle and head about 20 bucks) and use an array of puddy knifes or an electric angle grinder with a wire wheel. I am going to tackle some that this weekend myself.

When you get deep enough on an oil well you start using oil based drilling fluids and it gets every where. We used pressurized wands that sprayed straight diesel. We used it to clean the whole rig floor. I know you cant afford to do that butyou could spay some diesel on there with a yard sprayer let it sit then hit it with a pressure washer and it will come right off

[pritch]

Keep the faith! Heed the advice and load up with cheap oven cleaner. I took this on the 17th of Jan:

And this today:

Time and money is all it takes, but it is so worth it when it starts coming together!

Originally Posted by jbristo67

When you get deep enough on an oil well you start using oil based drilling fluids and it gets every where. We used pressurized wands that sprayed straight diesel. We used it to clean the whole rig floor. I know you cant afford to do that butyou could spay some diesel on there with a yard sprayer let it sit then hit it with a pressure washer and it will come right off

LOL. Around here, we'd make the switch when we hit the salt, usually somewhere between 12K to 15K deep. That's when I'd look for another job. They didn't pay enough to work with inverted mud.

[rick0312]

hang in there. it takes time it's been about two years for me since i took my truck off the road and started the refurbishing process. I run hot and cold...there have been times when i've gone months without touching the truck. my advice is just concetrate on one system at a time ie. frame cleanup, brake system etc. don't jump around from system to system stay focus and don't move on until that paticular job is finished. it does all come together.

[jsmithbm]

I tried the oven cleaner today. WOW. worked pretty good even without the pressure washer!

[Longhorn Man]

oven cleaner works better than a steam cleaner... try it.

[1967C20]

I just went through this recently as well. I scraped the thickest stuff off first, then used Super Clean (AutoZone) to soak everything down. Hit it with the pressure washer, more Super Clean, the wire scrub brush, pressure washer, then repeated twice. However, what everyone is saying about the oven cleaner is dead on. I used it on some smaller parts after I had already done my frame and if I had it to do all over again, I'd use the oven cleaner. Mine turned out OK, otherwise. The top picture doesn't do justice to the amount of filth I scrubbed off that frame. One nice thing about about leaky, oily truck engines, though, is they keep the underside of the truck practically rust free.

[frankdatank01]

Thanks for all the advice and comments. I hit it this weekend with some degreaser I already had and the pressure washer. Quite the mess but got it nice and clean. Not totally clean, but enough to get the parts apart easier. Now that I can see and get to all the bolts without the mess, I have been invigorated to start again. Just broke down the tie rod ends and pitman arms last night to replace/rebuild and POR-15 em.

Here are some after shots.

[frankdatank01]

And yes, they are buick manifolds. I have the 455 on the engine stand waiting its turn.

[Tx Firefighter]

It's hard to stay motivated on this stuff. It can be very overwhelming. I kept track of the time it took me to clean and detail the front suspension on my current truck. You don't even want to know how many hours it was. You have to tell yourself that this is what separates the men from the boys in this hobby. My girlfriend tells me that I'm well past the men-vs-boy stage and all the way to the sick bastard stage. You can eat an elephant if you take it one bite at a time.

You should check out my blog. It's more about the frustration and determination to restore a truck and less about the tech itself. I update it everyday as I work on this pile of crap. It keeps me sane. Kind of like a diary does for a woman.

[Fireshaker]

Simple green the Sh!t out of it and wire brush, and lots of degreaser/oven cleaner.. When your done you'll smile from ear to ear..

It's such a great reward looking back on something like that and going wow, holy crap i just cleaned that and make it look like new! I think it's a great reward anyways..

[69GMCLonghorn]

I spent many a night and drank many a beer cleaning my engine compartment about 4 years ago when the motor grenaded on me. As prev stated, it's very rewarding when it's done, but holy crap... it's a lot of work.

[Hawker7]

As stated... just some time, oven clearner, power washer, and some POR-15. Well, maybe a couple of other things on the way.