Tips & Techniques: Cleaning & Prepping parts

From dish soap to a laser rust removal system.
Electrolysis to case hardening.
Stripping, media blasting.....
Whatever you do to a part before you assemble it into the truck.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Whatever you do to a part before you assemble it into the truck.

Forget about the parts for a second. What if the whole truck is made out of rust? Asking for a friend.

Sometimes, just like man's best friend, the right thing to do is put them down.  😔

ArdWrknTrk wrote

From dish soap to a laser rust removal system.
Electrolysis to case hardening.
Stripping, media blasting.....
Whatever you do to a part before you assemble it into the truck.

I have used dish soap for dusty parts like door & kick panels but for greasy parts in my parts cleaner Zep Purple industrial degreaser. I have also been known to use old gas to degrease a motor & trany.
 
For rust I have used Electrolysis in a 5 gal. bucket as a test then moved to a home built pool on large parts, fenders & hoods and it worked pretty good on rust & removing paint.

Paint stripping & rust removal on panels I use stripping pads from Eastwood, gray pads work the best.

I have also soaked smaller rusty parts in Evap-O-Rust and it does ok.

No blasting or case hardening here.
Electrolysis pool with fender & bumper backets.

Eastwood pad on an air grinder, 3/4 of hood done.

Dave ----

Sorry that I'm late to the party, but I use a Graymills parts washer for cleaning parts.  It is made to use Simple Green, but since it heats the solution you really don't want to use the scented stuff as it'll run you out of the shop.

When I first got the washer I did try the evergreen Simple Green and got lots of complaints from the other family members as the washer was in the attached garage.  So I called Simple Green and talked to the owner and told him what I had and what I was doing.  He suggested using Simple Green Crystal that doesn't have the scent, and not to take the temp over 130 degrees.  So that's what I use.

However, the filtration system took a bit of learning as well.  There's a coarse screen to prevent tools or small parts from falling in, then there's a fine screen to catch stand, gravel, etc.  And then there's a string filter like used for water systems.

Originally it used short string filters, but those were hard to find so I upgraded to a 10" filter.  And I thought that something like a 2 micron filter would be good, but soon discovered that it plugged pretty quickly.  So over the course of several years I've gradually gone to less and less fine filters and have now arrived at 50 micron units, which work pretty well and last for many uses.

How does it work?  Very well!  I've probably only had to replace the Simple Green three or four times in the maybe 15 years I've had it.  But with the stuff up to temp it'll cut through grease and oil very well, although I do use brushes to clean things.  And when the part is clean you can rinse the part in hot water and dry it with a towel.

Neat antique Alabama tag to the left of the parts washer, Gary!

I thought about mentioning it, but decided I’d wait and see if you spotted it. 😉

I am always on the look-out for license plates and hub caps!