01-29-2021, 05:56 PM | #1 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Lubbock, TX
Posts: 37
|
Cleaning parts
Hi y’all- I am restoring a 28 roadster. It’s all original currently so as you might imagine many of the parts are coated with thick dirt and grease. I am scrubbing them in a parts cleaner with solvent which works pretty well on smaller parts but larger items (I.e., bell housing) it doesn’t work so well and the grease and sludge are thick. Do any of y’all have any suggestions as to how to clean these parts and get them clean enough to prime and paint? Thanks!!
Mike |
01-29-2021, 06:02 PM | #2 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: South California
Posts: 6,188
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Quote:
A large container, wire brush(s) and large paint brushes. I use diesel fuel. Cheap , good smell (yeah...) ! Have a cover for container, so when thru, can cover and reuse over/over. Works for me...as recently as this week. Oh...and good pair(s) of rubber gloves. Last edited by hardtimes; 01-29-2021 at 06:04 PM. Reason: ... |
|
Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements) |
|
01-29-2021, 06:08 PM | #3 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Signal Mtn, TN (SE TN)
Posts: 2,371
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Hot pressure wash, putty knife, smaller parts use oven cleaner
|
01-29-2021, 08:01 PM | #4 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Trumbull, CT
Posts: 134
|
Re: Cleaning parts
good sharp putty knife and lots 0f patience. Then the solvent. Happy cleaning.
|
01-29-2021, 08:22 PM | #5 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska
Posts: 1,909
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Stiff putty knife to get the bulk off, solvent parts washer (like your doing) followed by a scrub down (or two or three) with undiluted Simple Green.
Dry with a torch to reduce rust flash over. Wire wheel the parts and wipe down with lacquer thinner before painting.
__________________
Dave / Lincoln Nebraska Last edited by 1crosscut; 01-31-2021 at 07:40 PM. |
01-29-2021, 08:42 PM | #6 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 430
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)
|
01-29-2021, 08:56 PM | #7 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Wa.
Posts: 5,408
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Rent an old school STEAM cleaner.
Everything else is modern and not as efficient. |
01-29-2021, 09:09 PM | #8 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Mebane NC
Posts: 2,354
|
Re: Cleaning parts
One thing that worked well for me with small parts was to take a 50 grade Roloc bristle disc, put it in a drill press at high RPM, and run the part under it until all the paint and grime was off.
|
01-29-2021, 09:14 PM | #9 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Oregon
Posts: 5,963
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Oven cleaner works for me every time. Spray on, and use a stiff brush after it sits a few minutes then hose off. Read the cautions on the can.
|
01-29-2021, 10:17 PM | #10 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Land of Lincoln
Posts: 3,131
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Dish washer! No not the one in your kitchen. We had a parts washer where/when I was working, commercial cleaner rotated parts on a turn table hot soapy water sprayed.
__________________
Don't force it with a little hammer tap, tap, tap get a bigger hammer tap done |
01-29-2021, 10:32 PM | #11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 5,906
|
Re: Cleaning parts
If you have a professional steam cleaning shop in your area, take everything to them.
A word of caution from experience: do not use anything your wife (if you have one) uses on a regular basis, like the oven, any spatulas, stove top, shower, dishwasher, washing machine or dryer, towels (any towels!), washcloths, or any pots or pans. Just sayin’.
__________________
Ray Horton, Portland, OR As you go through life, keep your eye on the donut, not the hole. |
01-30-2021, 01:23 AM | #12 |
Senior Member
|
Re: Cleaning parts
I have used restaurant degreaser available at home depot in 30gallon garbage can. It is a one gallon concentrate. Placed an engine block in it waited a few days and hosed it off.
Have fun with your roadster. Dan |
01-30-2021, 11:29 AM | #13 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Red Deer, Alberta
Posts: 5,044
|
Re: Cleaning parts
When I worked in a heavy equipment shop there was a 45 (55 US) gallon drum that was cut down to about 12" high that was used for cleaning large parts w/diesel fuel. The really big stuff was taken into the wash bay and cleaned w/a pressure washer.
__________________
If you don't hear a rumor by 10 AM, start one!. Got my education out behind the barn! |
01-30-2021, 12:23 PM | #14 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: SF Bay Area
Posts: 1,075
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Mike - I've found that in many instances a water-based industrial degreaser works as well as or better than solvent. I use Purple Power because it's readily available locally to me, and it's a lot easier to get rid of after you've used it up than solvent (I'm in California, and the Powers That Be are a lot more fussy about dumping solvent/oil/etc. onto the ground). I use spray bottle of Simple Green for smaller parts that I clean off in the sink (when SWMBO is not around to catch me...).
If you decide to treat yourself to a real parts washer with pump and all, you'll find that nowadays most are not rated to use solvent in them. If you live in a city or don't have a power washer yourself, your friendly local do-it-yourself car wash will be your friend for the really yucky stuff. I spray with Gunk, then take over to the car wash and have at it with the wand and high pressure soapy water. Washes the bulk of the yuck into their catch basin and you're left with at worst a light coat of grease that you can easily remove. Oven cleaner is good, too. Both Gunk and Purple Power (or something similar) should be available at your local big-box or auto parts house. Beware that many of these products do NOT like anything other than iron or steel because they have some acid or alkaline properties. Plating, pot metal, aluminum all can get eaten away. (I destroyed a set of motorcycle forks figuring that out.) For those, simple paint thinner is probably your best bet. On another note - as you go through and clean things up, think about treating your parts to a rust converter step after you clean but before you repaint. I use Evapo-rust and other than it usually taking a lot longer to work (up to overnight) than the product data suggests, I'm quite happy with the results. JayJay
__________________
JayJay San Francisco Bay Area ------------------------ 1930 Murray Town Sedan 1931 Briggs S/W Town Sedan Last edited by JayJay; 01-30-2021 at 12:32 PM. |
01-30-2021, 03:32 PM | #15 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Eastern Tennessee
Posts: 11,513
|
Re: Cleaning parts
All I can say is I am glad we don't find ourselves cleaning parts like some of y'all do.
I am not sure there really is a 'best way' to clean old car parts. Even I am going to be upgrading our system in the future to a baking oven, but presently we use a heated sodium hydroxide soaking tank where the 15% concentrated mixture is heated to around 200° and the parts are submerged for about 12 hours while gently being agitated. After being soaked, they are moved into our Indo jet washer cabinet that has a Zep jet wash chemical in the water that is sprayed at 175° with a 5hp pump. This jet washer uses 12 fluid nozzles placed at different directions covering an 180 degree surface area. The items inside the washer rotate on a large turntable so it sprays from all angles. Generally about 10-15 minutes of cycle time is all it takes to make a basket load come totally clean. Then we have a large rotary blasting cabinet that has a 49" x 36" drum that uses tiny stainless shot to mediablast (shotblast) parts. The amount of time savings these three machines can give us cuts our cleaning time/costs by about 80%. In other words, what we can accomplish in a day of cleaning & blasting used to take us a week to do the same amount. Even still, it is a nasty job. . . |
01-30-2021, 05:13 PM | #16 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Illinois
Posts: 2,184
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Quote:
John
__________________
Welcome each day |
|
01-30-2021, 05:36 PM | #17 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: SF Bay Area
Posts: 1,075
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Quote:
And in any event, you should always scrape off as much of the gunk as you can get to and set it aside before you hit with liquid, even high pressure. JayJay
__________________
JayJay San Francisco Bay Area ------------------------ 1930 Murray Town Sedan 1931 Briggs S/W Town Sedan |
|
01-30-2021, 06:25 PM | #18 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Oregon
Posts: 5,963
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Brent, I'm jealous. I have used lye also on wheels soaked for a few days. They come out clean bare metal. I think oven cleaner I use (spray foam) Is a base like sodium hydroxide. You still have to do a lot of scraping but it desolves most everything (the grime) that is left.
|
01-31-2021, 05:25 PM | #19 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Illinois
Posts: 2,184
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Jay We do not have one like that. Yours must be really handy for large parts.
John
__________________
Welcome each day |
02-01-2021, 09:59 AM | #20 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Eastern Tennessee
Posts: 11,513
|
Re: Cleaning parts
Quote:
As far as cleaning, hobbyists can build a small soaking tank (i.e.: large stock/cooking pot all the way up to a 55 gallon drum) and use the sodium hydroxide & water to degrease with. Get creative with a deep fryer burner or even a wood fire underneath to heat the solution. Anything over 130° will quickly expedite the degreasing process. Next, the big box stores all sell inexpensive pressure washers to flush away the residuals. A large rinse tank can be used by recycling a old bathtub or livestock watering trough. The 'greasy stuff' that is floated off of the parts with the pressure washer is actually considered hazardous waste however if the water is evaporated out of the rinse tank where the grease & crud are allowed to dry, it is no longer considered hazardous waste and can be placed in a plastic bag to be disposed of with your household garbage. |
|
|
|
Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements) |
|