When I finish the interior of my Ranger, I have some paint like sound deadener I want to use as an undercoating.
This morning while working on the cab, I decided to look underneath. My truck is 5 years old with almost 75,000 miles on it.
While it doesn't look to bad under there considering it's age and mileage. It is covered with dirt, dust and grease.
I'd like to clean it so the paint/sound deadener will adhere properly. Neighbor suggested I take the truck someplace and have it steam cleaned.
While I like that Idea, I don't know where I could have that done. Does anyone know where I might take my truck for that?
I was thinking I might be able to use some sort of spray degreaser and then just hose it down.
I'm afraid that will make a mess in my carport. Is there some other way I could clean the truck without making a mess?

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

I would look in your phone book under detail and just start calling. I know some automatic car washes around here have an under carriage option. (but who knows how well that works.)

I know steam is often used on the engine bay. But I wonder how they will do it on the undercarriage with out a lift. I'm sure it will make a mess.

Best let someone else to that :thumbsup:

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Yeah, you gotta have a lift for that to work. I've used a steam cleaner before, and the absolute last thing you want to do is let either the jet stream or the nozzle itself to touch you. You can feel the heat from a few feet away.

Quite a few years ago I had a friend that worked for a large trucking company. While sometimes working as the scalemaster on the yard he would work late evenings. When working the late shift, and being pretty much the only one in the yard, he would let us bring our cars in and use the truck wash bay. The bay had all the cleaning tools you could think of, including a steam cleaner. The bay was designed so that you could get to the underside of the vehicles rather easily and give the vehicle a good cleaning top to bottom.

While I'm not suggesting sneaking into a trucking yard to give your a truck an underside washing, perhaps you could find somewhere where they would let you use their bay for a one time cleaning?

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the sharpest tool in the shed
1989 Mustang 5.0 GT (25th Anniversary Edition)
~hobby car~

How careful do you have to be with the steam in the engine bay? Can you just go nuts with it or what.

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I'm not going to be in the engine bay. Will be under the cab and in the wheel wells. If there's any left over I might "simple green" the firewall and brush some on there.

If you're asking for your own car, just be careful around fuses and any electrical components. Unless your engine is really cruddy, Simple green and water hose will usually do the job.
I usually spray the engine that's just warm, not hot. Let it sit for 10 mins or so. Then start it up and hose it off with the engine running. Just keep the hose moving.

Here's a link to a good video on engine cleaning. Takes a minute or so to get to the part about engine cleaning.
Cleaning The Motor - Adam's Premium Car Care Products

Ya I would take it somewhere unless you have access to a lift. otherwise thats gonna be a bitch