Best way to clean and degrease?

Recovry4x4 said:

Steam cleaner my eye. You don't need steam, you need more power (pressure). Think water jet here. If it can slice steel, think what it can do to grime? A member quite a while back had a 15,000 psi cleaner. Made short order of cleanup but was heck on tires. LOL. Thanks RDM, miss ya.

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You don't what to damage parts, just clean them. Steam will emulsify oil and grease and not damage electrical and other soft parts like rubber and plastic. That's why professional shops will have steam cleaners instead of high pressure washers.

The problem with type is you can't see the humor. The 15,000 psi was more along the "more horsepower" mans way of thinking. As far as professional shops here, they have both as each has it's niche.

So here is what Zep purple will do not diluted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGHgEZBaXa4&feature=youtu.be

Vid is marked as private so unable to view

Dawn Ducks Deuce clean

If it is just small jobs I suggest Dawn.
My HF pressure washer reminds me of the quarter
car wash when I was young, ...soak with 50/50 dawn + water
then hit it with the PC. Doesn't kill the grass either.
If it will clean crude off a duck it is good for the truck.

Mntsnow said:

Vid is marked as private so unable to view

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Fixed

Frank, that looks great! What kind of paint did you use?

I bought a gallon of the Simple Green and will see how it does. It's supposed to be safe. Wow that Zep Purple is Nasty stuff!! Unless you want to remove your paint I guess.

todds112 said:

I bought a gallon of the Simple Green and will see how it does. It's supposed to be safe. Wow that Zep Purple is Nasty stuff!! Unless you want to remove your paint I guess.

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If you dilute it, it is great. Straight out the bottle, yep.

I sprayed the tops of the tanks today and let it sit for a while. Got all the carc off and I'm down to the other layer of carc on the side.

Just pressure washed my chassis, here is my mileage using Zep Industrial De-greaser/cleaner and 2500psi @ 2" away from frame:

1st) pressure washed no chemicals; removed all fresh and caked on grease, dirt and loose paint
2nd) sprayed on Zep Industrial Degreaser/cleaner at 100% concentrate let sit 5 minutes; pressure washed again

Here are the pictures, I could see all of the thin paint dissolve quickly under pressure, thick paint remained. I believe a 2nd treatment with the Zep undiluted and letting it sit longer would be sufficient to remove 90% of the paint.

I just use my clothing. Whatever I'm wearing while working on Brutus gets totally ruined every time. I need to go clothing shopping asap!

Believe it or not, Dawn and scrub brush before the washing machine can work wonders.

Steve

Rather than make a new thread as planned, I will just join here. When I bought the truck and later for painting, I power washed the underside of the block and frame in front, which is full of grease and spilled oil. Used a cold-water 100-110 bar (about 1500 PSI) hobby cleaner and both times I was in a hurry, so no meticulous inch by inch cleaning. The greasy parts did not seemed very different after the cleaning.

Unfortunately, I cannot get the truck to a steam cleaner or vice versa, so that is out. Does raising the pressure from 110 to 130 bar (1700 psi) with higher volume and a yet-head on the spraying lance makes makes much difference? Cannot use too much chemicals where I am, but have to get the stuff clean before continuing the restoration.

In my experience, pressure alone does not remove the greasy film. It does remove caked on or thick grease/oil/dirt like you find on the undercarriage. There are several things guys use here that are household items - dishwashing liquid (Dawn, above), oven cleaner, any kind of domestic grease cutter.

Maybe that will be available to you.

Steve

clean trucks + clothes

Use the Dawn on the truck and the Tide Pods (25 cents a wash) on the truck clothes. Look up detergent emulsifying surfactant products wherever you are.



I know this mundane and this is a heavy truck site but this stuff works.

Robo isn't in the States. He might not have access to our brands and might not be able to use them as such if he does.

Steve

I'll second most dish detergents cut grease. Had a friend back in OH that used to haul liquid Cheer laundry detergent in a tanker truck. After the truck sat all nite you could drain out another 10 to 15 gallons of Cheer. We had 5 gallon carbouys full of the stuff all over the shop. Anyone here hauling bulk soaps?

I did use "Shout" to degrease the engine on my Pinz once. Worked great and left it smelling spring time fresh. Have to buy a case to use on the Deuce, though. I've been using the Simple Green and it's doing a pretty good job.

Laundry detergent is slightly different than dish detergent because the latter is really aimed at grease. If I had my druthers and no access to the hard core degreasers, after taking off the caking w/ pressure, I'd brush on straight detergent, let it sit 'til it started to look like it was drying, then start rinsing w/ pressure. Wouldn't hurt to warm the engine a bit. Undercarriage doesn't warm like that. The rinsing might take forever because of the sufactant and foaming action, but it's cleaning the whole time 'til it's gone.

Oh yeah - lather (brush), repeat 'til you're satisfied.

Steve

Kenny -we haul ZEP in 55 gallon drums - just ask CLINTO what help freight claims of damage does to help him out.

If you have that much build up ya outta be scrapping first before considering pressure / steam cleaning anything - anything less is a waste of energy and resouces and wasting your time.
Spray all ya want on caked up stuff and its like pissin in the wind - waste of time. Scrape not wire brush as that is a worthless endeavor - and get it as close to surface as you can then pressure wash with whatever you want or steam clean it and get it licking smooth clean.