User 4221

Don't laugh, but I recently restored a motorcycle caked in oil, chain lube grime and road grime. I used kerosene to clean up many of the heavily soiled items.

It will temporarily soften rubber but dry without residue. After the rubber dries, it returns to its original state, unharmed.

It enabled me to re-use the original chain and rehab it at the same time.

Just be very careful with it as its, you know, flammable.

pcar928fan

Good call there G-man! I like that idea...easy to do and stuff you already have around the house!

Marine Blue

Well I have another question. In my experience, anything abrasive including the scotch brite sponges or plastic scrub brushes will leave scratches on painted surfaces. I am hesitant to even try anything harsh for fear that it will leave light scratches. Anyone try using Mineral Spirits or Motor Oil using a boars hair brush? Any other suggestions?

I've been seriously thinking about getting a small steamer and slowly work away at the undercarriage during the winters.

AO

I can see it now...

How to Change Your SCer Belt By Tony H.


Nice work Tony. Never thought you'd be skiiing down a Double Black Diamond did you?

Tony

actaully Im going to go to Home Depot today and rent one for a couple of hours to see how it does on the underside. Im limited in my space to work under the car and i cant quite get the HP hose gun angled correctly.

Its a slippery slope as you now Andrew, but the end is getting closer

Rob Edwards

Afshin-

I can't recommend the steamer enough for undercarriage cleaning, I have a Daimer 200S, it's been discussed several times in the past. It generates about 5 bars of pressure, a happy medium between the $50 junk units and the multi-thousand dollar high pressure units. In the past I have put simple green on, let it sit for 10-15 min, then steam it off. I still have to use the plastic bristle brush on end of the steamer wand for cosmoline, but it works.

This was a first attempt, maybe 20 minutes of work:





Tranny before:


An hour later:



It even works on exhaust heat shields…..

Marine Blue

Steamer sounds like it may be the way to go.

Rob did you see any problems with using the Simple Green on plastics/rubber? Had a bad experience once but I can't pinpoint if it was Simple Green or Undercarriage spray.

Rob Edwards

Afshin-


No problems with the Simple Green, though I didn't let it sit for longer than 15 min or so. I will confess that I did scratch up my plastic wheel well panels (not the wheelwell liners, which are somewhat more resilient) with the green side of one of those scotchbrite sponges while de-cosmolining. I should have been more gentle there....

Fogey1

If you like to live really dangerously, gasoline is a great solvent for cosmoline.

Sparks and flame are very bad ideas. Good ventilation is a good one.

Rob Edwards

I have the rear crossmember off the GTS and the cosmoline on the suspension bits must be 2 mm thick. Throwing caution to the wind, I found that a quick pre-soak in kerosene painted on with a foam brush (outside, plenty of ventilation) followed by a cup-shaped wire brush in my electric drill not only takes thick encrusted comsoline off nicely, it doesn't damage the thermonuclear-proof black coating on the suspension arms, and the wire brush also polishes up the raw aluminum quite nicely. It does leave a lot of waxy grit all over everything, so I followed that up with a spritz of simple green and a pressure wash. There are still some nooks and crannies I need to clean out, will probably use either the dremel or fine a small conical wire brush with a longer shank.

Mrmerlin

after you wash the rear Xmember, you should consider removing the lower link pins and add some anti seize to them

Marine Blue

Rob that crossmember and suspension looks great. The GTS is going to be perfect by the time you're done.

It sounds like we spent the weekend doing similar work. I redid my wheel wells this weekend to remove more dirt/grime and cosmoline. I used P21S Total Auto Wash which is a citrus based cleaner to do the job. Unfortunately some of the cosmoline remained and I'll have to wait to get a steamer to remove it. Dirt and grime was easily removed this time.

BC

Rob -

Cheat - the nooks and crannies are the things that take hours. Powder coat everything.