I've never used oven cleaner but it makes sense that it would work. I don't know what's in that stuff that makes it work but it can't be good for paint or for human eyeballs so one would use ordinary precautions like throw old sheets or plastic over the cab, wear gloves and eye protection, etc. No matter how careful you are you would probably splatter some of that stuff so I'd take care in using oven cleaner. Engine degreasers are less caustic. I used a combination of degreasers, putty knife, coin car wash, more degreaser, more putty knife, back to the car wash. Then I found an old muffler shop that had an old fashion steam cleaner in the back. He charged me $100 to steam the engine, trans, frame and suspension. He didn't do that great of job and I ended up going over again and again. I ended up parking the truck on the front lawn, spraying it with degreaser. Hooked the hose up to my home's tankless hot water heater where I have an endless supply of hot water. Put a high pressure brass nozzle on the garden hose and used that to blast off what was left of the crud. Wish I would have thought of this sooner.
I went to all that trouble because the first sandblasting guy I talked to wanted $1700 to blast the bed alone!!!! Then a neighbor gave me a guy who did the bed inside and out, the frame, suspension and outside of the wheels for $300. A frame could be sandblasted without touching the paint on the body. It would be a little like painting the frame. Even though my cab was just primered, they covered it anyways. Cover the areas you don't want blasted with plastic. Sandblasting doesn't seem to affect rubber. The sand kinda bounces off so you don't have to worry about that They blasted dump beds many times so they knew to mask the exposed ram of the hydraulic cylinder. He got the dump bed inside and out, the rear bumper, the frame, rear end, suspension. He even did the outside of the wheels. It came out pretty good. You'll see the blasted frame in these pix after I had painted the bed. The bed was stripped as well as the frame in these pix.
http://picasaweb.google.com/orchidskip/SandblastedFrame?authkey=C3-1gjEMeFY It cost me for multiple cans of degreaser, many quarters at the car wash, the money for the steam cleaner and finally the sandblaster. Because I didn't know what I was doing, I ended up spending more than I should have. Hope this is helpful to you such that you can figure out a way to cut costs. Good luck!!!
