The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Power wash frame of daily driver

I was doing some work under the '51 recently, and it really struck me how greasy/oily the frame is. My initial thought was to power wash it. But, the more I thought about it I started wondering what the end result would be. With the grease gone, would my truck fall apart? What about getting water in places that it doesn't belong? So, I would like to hear your experiences with power washing the frame of a daily driver. Thanks in advance.

you'll need some pretty good degreaser to soften that old crusty stuff before you can pressure wash it off there! Then, if you are doing it at home, you will have all that junk on your yard! LOL.

I normally just scrape/clean where I am working and call it good. All that caked on grease and dirt add a layer of protection to the underneath! Although it may add a bunch of extra weight and ruin gas mileage!

Maybe spend a day underneath it with a wire wheel on a die grinder?

My 51 had a nice protective undercoat of 60 plus years of oil/grease/dirt crud that was an inch thick in places. My solution; on a HOT summer day I used a pump-up sprayer and soaked it all with diesel. Next day I attacked the crud with a gasket scraper, screw drivers and whatever else it took to remove the now much softer layer of crud.. This was followed up with a lot of Purple Power (full strength) more elbow grease and a high pressure water hose.

I didn't worry about any consequences, the hot weather soon dried out any moisture. A good grease job add protection where needed.

The huge plus to cleaning things is I found alemites I couldn't see before and the drivetrain upgrades and maintenance work that followed were much easier with a clean undercarrage.

No down sides, just positive results.

Good Luck RonR

"Alemites?" Interesting...is that a term for zerk fittings?

yep, just plain oil grease fittings!

As soon as you get it clean it will start rusting...you won't find any rust pits under the grease!

Mike B

Thank you all for the input. It sounds like if I do anything, it will be a diesel fuel soak and old fashioned elbow grease. I am a bit concerned of what Mike mentioned. Some of that grease has been on the truck longer than I have been alive. I don't want to lose its rust preventing power... but it's so cruddy.

when I work on my 58, I scrape junk off of where I am working, like when I replaced all the brake lines, I had a lot to scrape and clean. Same with re-wiring tail lights and cleaning up wiring underneath. I think it also depends on where you live, and if it is driven all winter on wet and salted roads! I would not be too concerned with cleaning if you are going to re-coat it as you go but ,hard to beat 60 years of grime for protection for a working truck! (not really what you want for a show piece though!)

Unless you are doing a body off, I'm inclined to think it is better left on there. It seemed I spent forever on my cab bottom and frame after I separated them. Can't imagine being on my back under there scraping. Anyway, my truck had caked on mud from 50 years on the farm. Under the caked mud was the dealer installed tar undercoat in pristine shape. Under the dealer installed undercoat was the prettiest gloss black sheet metal, yes gloss black. That being said, nothing better than that to protect the underneath IMHO. You break into that and you daily drive it, especially in the midwest, you might/will start to rust.

Alemite was (is) a brand of grease fittings from way back. The term "zerk fittings" is named for the inventor Otto Zerk. They differ slightly.

Here's an interesting read, containing some info I was not even aware of till now. The interesting part is that modern grease fittings should not be called zerks, as they are a different pattern, with zerks being tapered, not ball shaped.
The history of grease fittings

Nice link, Kevin,

I found two types/sizes of fittings on my 54/55 GMC 2-ton COE front end parts. It had never been off the orchard/warehouse grounds and needed minor cleanup.

No restoration, just a nice mostly original old truck that I put to work from time to time. I think I'll leave it alone. Thank you all for the help making the decision.

Personally I cannot tolerate all that crud. I have to scrape it off, maybe leaving what doesn't want to come off. If the scraping exposed bare sheet metal, I have cleaned it thoroughly and treated it with Ospho, rusty metal primer and Rustoleum gloss black paint.
That's just me though.
Carl

I found the front and mostly rear motor mount crossmembers on my 46 full up of grease and mud. It bothered me that the dirt in this mix continued to stay wet a couple days later after power washing. I scraped it clean. For the rear member I went so far as cutting into the bottom of it, removing the bottom steel along the length, and pulled big chunks of wet dirt caked in there and then welded a clean piece of steel with weep holes, back on after giving it the POR treatment inside this member. The point is that dirt and built up crud held the moisture, and that moisture was pitting and rusting out these areas.