How do you guys clean your truck

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Pope

Pope

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,442
Location
Columbus Ohio
How do you guys clean your truck I am in the middle of changing TVP's and doing a Mid-tank and want to make the truck nice and clean normaly don't care but figure why not hasn't been clean since I took it out of the box 5 years ago. Have done light cleaning but now I want to do a nice show clean so I can take a nice pic. almost out of nitro cleaner so that's not an option looking for something I may have around the house.
 
Denatured Alcohol 50/50 with water or Simple Green.

I bought this Purple Power stuff at Walmart that works great also and you can mix it 5 to 1. Cleans everything.
 
Simple green is good stuff. Unless my truck is muddy I just spray it with my air compressor. Blows the major stuff off.
 
before i run it.....spray with wd40......blow dry her off. after a long day of running....i spray carb cleaner on everything, blow it off again, and spray her down with no touch tire foam, let her sit for about 15 minutes....and blow her off again. this way is the way i've been doing my trucks for years and never had bad bearings or rusted or corroded anything. any one that has bought any of my truck parts can tell you how they look......almost like they were never ran. racingrusty and ryugaiden clean theres this way also.
 
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after every bash i just blast my truck with some compressed air and spray the left rear a-arm and shock with a 50/50 mixture of clean green to remove most of the oil residue from the exhaust and blast it with air again.

I pull down the whole thing once every month or two and run everything metal and plastic through the dishwasher.crazzy
 
two different ways:

teardown- scrub brush and liquid dish washing detergent.

on a bash- paslode cordless pnuematic nail gun cleaner. this is great for when you need to remove your glow plug caz you can put on the plastic tube & blast away all the junk so it don't get into your cylinder head (& its cheap).

some links in here---> https://www.hpisavageforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10498
 
frddyj said:
two different ways:

teardown- scrub brush and liquid dish washing detergent.

on a bash- paslode cordless pnuematic nail gun cleaner. this is great for when you need to remove your glow plug caz you can put on the plastic tube & blast away all the junk so it don't get into your cylinder head (& its cheap).

some links in here---> https://www.hpisavageforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10498
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I do this too both counts. In mud I take the garden hose to it. has also seen the shower head (winter). I hit it over with compressed air when I'm done.
 
I've been taking the garden hose to mine too, on the suspension components at both ends being very careful to keep it away from the radio box. Then I wipe it down with a micro-fiber towel and blow the water out of the spots I can't get ot with the towel. The only spot I have noticed any rust is on the pins that go through the axle and I don't know which piece was actually rusting so I have been putting some clear silicone grease on the pins before I put them into the axles to help keep moisture from getting between the parts. It seems to be working cause I have not seen any more rust.
 
Pope NJ- I have a small Craftsman with twin 2 gallon tanks, the kind that separates from the wheels so you can carry it around with you on a job. It works awesome on small jobs and it was very cheap, if I remember right I think I paid around $100 on sale and it came with a bunch of accessories. It's not the most powerful thing but it is strong enough to run my impact wrench and take the lug nuts off my car and truck and that is about the biggest thing I do with it. I love that I can take it with me so easily and it can still do anything I need it to.
 
MikeK1981 said:
Pope NJ- I have a small Craftsman with twin 2 gallon tanks, the kind that separates from the wheels so you can carry it around with you on a job. It works awesome on small jobs and it was very cheap, if I remember right I think I paid around $100 on sale and it came with a bunch of accessories. It's not the most powerful thing but it is strong enough to run my impact wrench and take the lug nuts off my car and truck and that is about the biggest thing I do with it. I love that I can take it with me so easily and it can still do anything I need it to.
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Thats a good Idea thanks
 
I took the garden hose to mine a few times when it was real muddy but remember anything that can will rust. including your clutch springs!!
 
I get a little particular with mine. I break the truck down into 4 pieces. Front assy, rear assy, main chassis with engine in it, then the radio box. Everything but the radio box gets simple green, water, blown dry with an air compressor, then sprayed with wd-40 and blown off again with said air compressor. It takes a little more time, but its nice and clean in the end.
 
I almost never clean my truck completely. If a particular area gets very heavily soiled, I will clean it with a toothbrush soaked in pure methanol. Methanol is quite effective at breaking up caked on dirt due to its low surface tension. It is a terrible solvent for oil residues as it is polar, but I have my exhaust flow routed underneath the truck with a deflector, so I don't have to worry about that.

I'm not a fan of spraying the truck down with solvents and spraying them off, as that has a good chance of washing the grease out of the bearings and the graphite lubricant out of my cup joints. For a thorough cleaning, I tear the truck down once a year to clean all of the parts individually.
 
The Pope NJ said:
Thanks guys you think I can use a hairdryer till I get an air compresser
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Leafblower works also. Used it on my RC's until I got a compressor, and still use the leafblower to dry the 1:1.

Thought I was the only one who used a leaf blower on my cars 1:1. Great minds think a like.
 
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surprisely...i have never had to take mine trucks completely apart to clean them.....i clean them after every run....so they really don't get dirty and stay dirty.
 
I used some WD-40 w/ compressed air and it cleaned it great, almost too good- it started flaking the chrome on the wheels.

What do you guys for the wheels that won't damage the coating?
 
I just leave it muddy and keep it with some out door "pride" so to speak. Just hit the drivetrain with the air compressor. It works nice because I keep out of the mud, I have plenty of fun just hitting the dirt.
 
Dude the coating on the HPI wheels is terrible. It comes off in the box before you even open it LOL. I have not seen a set of stock XL wheels yet that did not come off immediately. HPI hooked me up with a new set and there were bubbles in the finish around the fake lug nuts when I got them. Same with the originals.
 
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