The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop degreasing prep for painting

Tonight I pressured washed my frame rails and cross members in the engine compartment. What should I use to degrease the metal prior to painting. I am very tempted to use Gasoline but I don't want to become an atomic fireball in the process.

Use a strong wax and grease remover available at your friendly neighborhood auto paint store.

Brian

MartinSr (sage paint mentor)-
Is Eastwood's PRE a suitable product? Getting ready myself and stocked up on this. Hope I made a good call!

Do you mean heavy grease that the washer couldn't remove? If so you'll need a heavy degreasing agent. If you mean just general pre paint cleanup, any paint jobber will stock that. Just ask for wax & grease remover.

I don't know that is, do you have a link?

Now, as Tiny pointed out, this would be AFTER you have power washed or scraped or what ever you are doing to get the majority of the gunk off. We are talking just "clean up" prior to paint of any lasting oils or what ever.

Brian

Brake cleaner works really good for removing oil residou.Just follow the directions.You should always wash with a final wash just prior to painting. Any brand seems to work alright. Try to keep your hands off of it after this. I found that a lot of the equipment paint is actually a oil based enamel,witch is a little more tolerent to oil and the price is a lot better.$30. vs $100 a gallon.

gunk engine cleaner works good or semple green or oven cleaner

What should I use to break down the really caked on stuff. The farmer that I bought the truck from did a great job of greasing the front end, but over time the old grease has mixed with dirt from his road and fields to form a freakish grease concrete.

i've been told brake cleaner leaves a residue

try : Por 15 product called marine clean.

to break down the thick or heavy or caked on grease use easy off oven cleaner
see
http://www.stovebolt.com/bboard/cgi-bin//ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=005323#000004

degrease as much as possible, scrape as much as possible, repeat
use marine clean or ??? repeat, pressure spray w/ a degreaser.
pressure spray again w/ hot water
now you're ready to paint
while you're at the drug store or paint store pick up a box of latex rubber gloves.........they're great

Caked grease is great fun to get off- I've used a wire wheel in a grinder and a gasket scraper with a mallet to get most of it. Were I to do it again I might make a trough out of some rain gutters to dip the frame in and use lye, which is the active ingredient in oven and drain cleaner. I've cleaned cast iron with it, and you can leave steel in there for weeks and it won't hurt it, but it might flash rust when you pull it out since it sucks all the oil right out of the pores of the metal. Whatever you do, I guarantee you will make a huge mess.

Even better than latex gloves are the nitrile/latex double thick gloves that Harbor Freight sells in 100 count boxes for $6. They do a good job of keeping the nasty chemicals off you. Lye and other degreasers tend to go right through plain latex.

I just saw a Harbor Freight add for the 100 count box for $3.99. For the heavy stuff I heat it with a torch and then scrape. For the final degreasing I use TriSodium Phosphate (TSP). This is a good degreaser, rinses with water, is cheap and easy to use. However there is usually some work in between the heavy grease/layer and the dirt layer. Oven cleaner is good.