Hey everyone, I'm trying to get the car ready for Carlise GM Nationals next month and am having a difficult time getting this stuck on dirt removed from the engine bay paint.

So far I have tried:

- washing
- using dirt and grease remover sprays
- steaming and more removers.
- very light compound

Currently using Meguires Compound with a microfiber pad and while it is working, it is very slow progress. Any one use a better method to clean this up?





Thanks.

- Jim

 

I may not have faced anything quite as stubborn. But when I first got my car, the under hood area had been kept clean-ish (like maybe an occasional spray with a garden hose), but had a lot o wax and grease buildup. I first started cleaning with Fantastic, but that was removing a lot of "red" (paint color). So I switched to WD40. It broke up the worst of the grime without issue, didn't remove as much of the old paint/overspray, and left a protective film behind. It did not leave things feeling oily (I didn't use THAT much), and thus did not attract or hold new dirt.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post5819582

 

Is that grime or heavily oxidized paint? If it's paint, that would explain the difficulty in trying to clean in a conventional way.
(It may be that the pictures don't represent what you're actually dealing with.)

 

Thanks for replying, Dave. I also tried wd40 with no results. It is very stubborn.
I tried to take as best of a picture as I could. I'll try to take one with the sun on it in the morning. It's a mix of both really. The compound I'm using is taking care of the paint oxidation but you can see the grime that is left behind when working an area.

 

You are lucky you have paint that durable, and that shines up that well in the engine compartment. Mine is like baked on base coat with very little clear at all. There is no place that it is glossy, and as you may have seen in the link I provided, the color comes off if you are too aggressive cleaning. The engine compartment finish varies quite a bit from year to year, plant to plant, and car to car.

Count you blessings.

 

Looks like overspray. Try a mild solvent. Just keep in mind the paint under the hood is often little more than overspray itself, and often doesn't have a heavy clear coat to seal the base. Meaning, if you get too aggressive you'll remove the base coat and you'll be left with the gray primer.

 

Definitely not overspray. It is just buildup over the years. My gray car looked similar but it cleaned up so much easier.

 

Dirt comes off pretty easily... Except when it's got clear coat overspray on it from a previous bumper cover touch up. It's really common on these cars to have had the bumpers resprayed, and they seldom did a great job masking, afterall "it's just clear". FWIW.

 

Very possible. The car was repainted before I purchased it. Thanks.

 

I've had great success using diluted "Totally awesome" cleaner, and grey scotchbrite pads. Wear gloves and just dip the pad in a bowl of cleaner and go to scrubbing. When it's all clean you can use microfibers and some rubbing compound by hand to shine it all back up. I just did some inner fenders on a truck (prepping for a show) and spent about 2.5 hours each on them.

 

That almost looks like a film layer of undercoating. Have you tried using any of the Gunk products? I found the gel engine cleaner did a fantastic job of removing the Rusty Jones beeswax style undercoating on my IROC-Z. If that wouldn't do much, then I'm in agreement with Drew that the dirt has been sealed in by a layer of clear.

 

Simple green. Spray it on, let it soak, then wipe with a moist terry towel then rinse off.


Badda bing, badda boom.

That stuff will come right off.