under hood cleaning

[LanceB]

I have an 81 with a lot of black parts underneath the hood. Have been using armor-all on these to keep looking good. I wanted to see if anyone else does anything different to clean these parts and keep looking good.

 

[LanceB]

Also, my valve covers look awful. They are the stock (magnesium?) ones with the fins. Paint is peeling and grease is very hard to get out of fins. I want to keep everything stock under hood, but these may have to go.

 

[Fishman]

I use a product by Mothers... 'Back To Black'. It really does a good job of cleaning and restoring the black finishes...

Back To Black

 

[Yoda]

Lance,

I use Simple Green to clean a lot of things in the engine compartment... A few years ago I took the valve covers off and put new gaskets on. I cleaned up the covers using Gunk Carb Cleaner and a small wisk brush, then used Simple Green. One of my winter projects is to take the covers off and clean and paint, of course another set of new gaskets will be in order too.

It's a real pita to get these covers off, requires a lot of removing of other stuff. I haven't decided to tape the ridges or use a cloth and wipe the paint off, I'll know more when I have them on my work bench and can study it a bit more

I have a buddy that uses "Black New" or Black something on all his black engine components and swears by it. I've Never used it, so I don't know, other than his engine compartment looks mighty fine..

Bud

 

[LanceB]

Might have to try that mothers stuff. So far my 81 is looking really good. I started kind of backwards. I have it mechanically like new, and I had it all painted. Waiting on next paycheck and I will be purchasing digital camera for pics. Paintjob set me back big time. I need new seats and carpet next though, and the valve covers would really make the engine compartment presentable. My bodyshop high pressure hosed it A LOT, which caused a good leak in my floor board. It is colder here in KY, so I am having a hard time getting it to dry. I scrubbed carpet, sucked it with wet/dry vac, and I rode around for 1/2 hour last night with heat cranked. Hopefully that will help eliminate the awful smell coming from the pad, and get it fully dried. I guess he cleaned it a couple of times during the process, so it sat around with a wet floorboard for weeks.

 

[ron*d]

Hi Lance,

I know that using all these products makes your car look like its a show winner and I am not saying that isnt a great idea but... A-all and a host of other products that are out there to make your car look all wonderfull.. are usually filled with silicon and well if you ever intend on doing any painting to your car ..under or on your hood or elsewhere for that matter, you may want to find somthing that is less paint unfriendly. Being as your car is fiberglass ..it has pores in it and those pores are going to be filled with this stuff and basically make it so paint will not stick to your fbg. Ever seen a Corvette with liquid filled blisters under the paint... ever wonder where and how those are formed???

-Ron

 

[curtis]

I like powder coated parts. Very durable and stuff just wipes right off when you clean it. A friend and I went togethr and bought the home kit from Eastwood and do all our coating in and old electric range we scored for 10 bucks. the hardest thing is to get the target surface absolutley clean.

 

[wishuwerehere82]

Hi Lance,

I have been cleaning fiberglass boats with a cleaner that is citrus based. I think it's called super citrus cleaner. It's biodegradeable and really cuts grease and oil and washes clean with plain water rinse. I buy it at Advance auto parts, and it comes in an orange spray bottle for couple bucks.
Works great on the white engine compartments in yachts.
Spray in on, brush it for a few seconds, and rinse it off.

 

[BruceBed]

I used Fantastik orange cleaner under my hood and it seemed to work well . There was no residual soap scum. I used armor all on the rubber. It looks nice and tidy .

 

[90fizzle]

wipe new

Lance,

I use Simple Green to clean a lot of things in the engine compartment... A few years ago I took the valve covers off and put new gaskets on. I cleaned up the covers using Gunk Carb Cleaner and a small wisk brush, then used Simple Green. One of my winter projects is to take the covers off and clean and paint, of course another set of new gaskets will be in order too.

It's a real pita to get these covers off, requires a lot of removing of other stuff. I haven't decided to tape the ridges or use a cloth and wipe the paint off, I'll know more when I have them on my work bench and can study it a bit more

I have a buddy that uses "Black New" or Black something on all his black engine components and swears by it. I've Never used it, so I don't know, other than his engine compartment looks mighty fine..

Bud

I used a product called wipe new. Its an as seen on TV product and works better than anything I've seen for old grey worn plastic stays black and shiny for 5 or 6 months, Terry

 

[Tom Bryant]

This is an old thread but still relevent. I've been lucky in that I haven't had any problem with the valve cover paint yet. I just keep the engine compartment clean with the pressure washer staying away from labels. I have had to remove a bracket or two for repainting as some of them start to rust. That probably is more due to what the variouse suppliers to GM used for paint. I may try some of that Wipe New. My GMC Terrain has a lot of exterior black trim that needs fressened up.

Tom