The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk CLEANING A FRAME

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO GREASE AND GRIMES OFF A FRAME, THE CHEAP AND EASY WAY?

The words cheap and easy don't usually go together do they?

As far as grease and grime...degreaser, pressure washer, scrapers, elbow grease etc. Good job for a kid if you've got one.

Might look into renting one of those steam pressure cleaners as well. The easier methods tend to be less cheap.

3000 PSI or better with a pressure washer. If you can use steam cleaning, that is better yet. Then send out for sandblasting and then prime and paint immmediately.

Easy and NOT cheap, is to blast it with dry ice.

I'm doing mine now. Putty knife and elbow grease, cheap but some blood loss. Next, cheap solvent to cut the oil stains a little. Knock the loose rust off and wire wheel the big open areas.Wear saftey glasses, the little wires usaully come flying off at 300 mph. Then paint on good ole Ospho.( Phosforic Acid mix) let it dry over night, turns rust black and seals it for painting.It does'nt look to bad and after all you said cheap.That's me

Yeah... Cheap, Easy, fast -- Pick one.


John

I used dry ice to clean aluminum machinery where I used to work.It was very expensive and some of the dry ice ricocheted and went down my shirt.That stuff stings.

Oven cleaner works good on grease.

putty knife, and cheap engine degreaser, and 3 or 4 skinned knuckles, a cut or 2 and your on the way

Another very good choice and not too expensive, but with the best results - chemical dipping. It's always my choice on paint, rust, grease, crud, etc. removal. My stuff comes back looking like brand new parts! The place I use puts a protective coating on the parts so you don't have to rush to get paint on them. I've let them sit for a few months with no sign of rust.

Joe

use a case of::

go to one of those dollar stores and buy....
Easy Off Ovan Cleaner, let it soak into the greasey areas overnight. in fact spray over and over again those areas. remember to shake the can ... lots
hose off the heavy crud or scrap it off.
repeat..................
repeat.................
now take it to a coin spray washer and degrease it
again
you should be in pretty good shape by the 6-8th time.

Have Fun & drink beer

I knocked the big chunks off with a putty knife and sent it out to the sand blaster. A hundred dollars later, I had a perfectly clean frame with out any personal injury to me or my shop. Wouldn't even consider doing it myself for that kind of money,
Scott

What is the suggestion if you have a running truck and you do not want to pull the body, damage the existing paint, etc...?

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!!!

"Have Fun & drink beer"
Wrong order. Drink beer & have fun.
One other option not discussed: Go out and find some day labor and @ $8.00 an hour the work goes fast and the cost is minimal.