Best Way to Clean Up Front Suspension Parts for Paint

Funny you should ask that as it looks like I`ll be doing that on my wife`s new toy in the near future (36 years of it in her case ).

Done two in the recent past- I`ve just finished doing this on my `84 RX-7 and did it on a `75 Jag (talk about an awful mess!) before that. Neither had ever been cleaned before.

You might want to use a pressure washer (used one on the Jag), preferably one with a water heater. That oughta get the worst of the gunk off but in my experience it doesn`t get *nearly* all of it. You have to be careful where you direct the stream too. If you don`t have a pressure washer it`ll just take a little longer but you can still get great results. I did the RX-7 without one and it turned out better than the Jag (took a lot longer though). A high-grade steamer will be handy but it`s no miracle worker in my experience.

First I try to get all the loose stuff out of the way. Hose and light brushing or a pressure washer. You might be surprised at all the gravel and sand! This`ll get you down to the stuff that`s really gonna take work.

Get an appropriate cleaner. Many use Simple Green but I don`t like to use it around cars (too many materials it`s not good for). I use engine cleaners (the safe kind, most recently the Hi-Temp stuff from TOL and Griot`s Engine Cleaner), EF Hi-Intensity, and P21S Total Auto Wash- there are numerous similar "APC" products from many companies. Ones that`re made to emulsify/dissolve grease work the best in my experience, and the citrus-based ones are often very good if they`re strong enough.

I use brushes to agitate these cleaners while they`re dwelling. It takes multiple applications, each one taking off a layer or two of the stuff.

Spray on cleaner, let dwell, agitate, let dwell, agitate, rinse, inspect, repeat as needed.

Note that the runoff will be pretty nasty stuff (all that old grease, somewhat emulsified). Give some thought as to where it`s gonna go (environmental consciousness etc.).

When the stuff in question is strictly grease/etc. I often use a solvent on rags (which are instantly trashed, so have a lot of them). I`ve been using Wurth Cleans-All and AutoInt`s ValueGuard New Car Prep. When this stuff is baked on it`ll take a long dwell time, so you`ll have to figure out how to keep the solvent-soaked rag in place.

Seems like the combination of solvents and degreasers/cleansers works better than either approach by itself. Note that the above process will also compromise most forms of undercoating (if present). IMO it`s often best to just let what happens happen and then spray some new undercoating on- this makes for a *very* nice appearance BTW and the undercoating is pretty easy to apply once everything is clean.

If the cleaning uncovers any metal parts that`re badly surface-rusted, I`d give them a quick painting (just with a brush) using Eastwood`s Rust Encapsulator. The flat black version blends well with black undercoating. No real prep is required beyond the cleaning and this stuff really holds on compared to regular paints (better than POR-15 too).

Hope I didn`t forget anything. I was really happy (and a little surprised) with how well the above worked for me.

Best Way to Clean Up Front Suspension Parts for Paint

Source: https://www.autopia.org/forums/car-detailing/103535-clean-suspension.html

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