lol

so i have my engine out, and i wanted to clean out the engine compartment before i drop the new sucker in there.

simple green is some good stuff, so i made a nice strong mix of it (roughly 70/30) and sprayed it everywhere underhood. i made sure to get in in the hard to reach corners and behind stuff where dust collected...

i sprayed it all off with a garden hose.... looked great.. until it dried.

all of the grease and grime were gone, but the dust was still clinging there....

i cant scrub everywhere where i want it cleaned, what can i do to get this dust out?? to make it worse, everytime it gets wet, it disappears.

tips and hints would be great.

 

lol...be thankful you don't have an open element hood like ss or ws6 style.

 

you going to just stand there and laugh, or are you going to tell me how you clean your car?

 

well..

it takes me like 9 hours to fully clean my iroc for a show...

as for the engine compartment...

you will never EVER get it 100% clean..dust is the devil it finds a way to get there and stay there..trust me i wish i could not have dust...you just have to continue to clean it over and over..its a tedious job..but if you want a pefect car..thats how you do it..

iroc2nv

ps..only thing i can say..dont use anything that attracts the dust more...such as tire shine or anything glossy

 

i had the same problem as you man, cept i was getting my iroc and my 81 ready for the 4th of july parade, and car show and everytime i washed/waxed it, it would look clean as can be...let it sit for about 3 minutes and i could see pollen galore everywhere on it....the only thing i could do was keep wiping it off with a rag (dry or slightly damp) over n over n over again...it takes most of it off but it still left enough to notice it...good thing no one was actually close to my BLACK iroc during the parade...that yellow pollen sure does show up when you're close up to it (it wasn't too too bad on my orange/ kameleon striped 81 tho)

 

hey never tried this but it struck me reading your post what about one of those swifter duster things it is statically charged to attract the dust.

 

well if it's just "dust" I don't understand why you can't just rinse it off. I also don't understand how you got all the grease and grime off but not dust... or is this like years of caked-on nasty dirty gross sh**...

 

try some dish wash mixture, you sure its not just bad paint.

 

the greasey stuff was easy.... the only grease underhood was by the power steering box.


im talking about the fine layer of silt, grayish dust that a car picks up after 130+k...

it comes off.... most of it is off where i can rub it... but between and behind stuff, i can see it but cant scrub at it...

 

Toothbrush.......

 

If you can, although since you got the engine out, try to find a pressure washer or tow it to a car wash and just pressure wash the **** out of it, should help get the bulk of it off. If not, do like FlynLow said get a tooth brush, make an elbow, extend it, to do whatever ya can to get to what ya can't get to if that makes any sense :P.


BTW, watcha throwing in it?

 

dust? ae you sure its not the clear coat that has hazed over from to strong a cleaner burining it? take a spot and rub it with some compound or a cleaning wax and see what it does. i sounds like oxidation.

Jeff

 

Why not use a blow off tool to get the dust out? It works good for a lot of things like that.

 

wasn't laughing at you, basically knowing what you go through and telling you how luck you are to not have a hood like my own. well if it's actual dust it's impossible to keep it off the car, you'll need to clean it once in awhile. if it's long term like i'm thinking then it sounds like oxidation. that or dirt that has been burnt into areas from heat which happens.

i use basic polish products and a 50/50 simple green/water mix and i've never had any problems.

the new ss hood being open really keeps my bay dirty so i'm working on sealing it up but beyond that it shouldn't get too bad.

 

When I cleaned up the engine bay of my 89 RS for painting (8 months ago?) I used a de-greaser solution from a local company:

Auto Chem Systems
(808) 216-4525
94-150 Leoleo Street Suite 6B
Waipahu, HI. 96797

I'm sure you could find the same type of product locally. Anyway, finished it off with a pressure washer/sprayer and looked almost new. No grease, no dust, no problems. Sanded it good, and sprayed it black. Looks great!! And now that I have the tranny and TQ arm out of my IROC I'm thinking about doing the same thing under the chassis (minus the sanding and painting lol). But wouldn't recommend this process unless the engine bay was empty ... I'm sure the rubber hoses would be damaged by both the de-greaser solution and the pressure washer/sprayer.