[Darryl]

I'm not sure these have ever been cleaned! 20 years of crud.



For those that are feeling adventurous, here's the basics.....



Materials used:



Adam's All Purpose Cleaner (APC) at 100% full strength

Brake Clean

Double sided kitchen scrubbie sponge - one side sponge, one side scrubbie

Some regular terry cloth towels

Various shaped brushes

Bucket with hot water

Rubber Gloves

Goggles

Hat



Not much to the actual step by step, but a few tips. Start in the middle and let gravity allow the APC to rinse down. It will make the cleaning of the lower parts even easier. Be sure to do the backside everything too while you're in there. Once all the dirt is gone, you may even discover you still have some 20 year old cosmoline in there. I had some in the wheel barrels so I guess my wheel barrels have never been cleaned and are original to the car! Your choice to take the cosmoline off or leave it there. Since I was going for clean and my car is white, I took it off. I don't drive this car in rain or snow anyway. APC will slowly dissolve the cosmoline but brake clean works much better...problem is, the brake clean may also take the paint with it! Again, not a problem for this particular project, since I had some single stage Grand Prix White mixed up in a rattle can at my local paint shop. Here are the results.



As Started

   



Wow, what a difference!

   



Done.

   



Passenger Side Complete

   

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[flash]

nice!!!

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[94SilverCab]

Darryl,



I was shocked when I was at your detail day last Spring and we used the APC on my wheel wells. The entire time I owned the car I was not aware that the rear wells were body colored, I always thought they were black (seriously).



Adam's APC is 1,000 times better than simple green.



Jay

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[Langley968]

That is impressive. Nice job to do on a lift...

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[vliegwielolaf1234]

[quote name='94SilverCab' timestamp='1354121166' post='135387']

Darryl,



I was shocked when I was at your detail day last Spring and we used the APC on my wheel wells. The entire time I owned the car I was not aware that the rear wells were body colored, I always thought they were black (seriously).



Adam's APC is 1,000 times better than simple green.



Jay

[/quote]





I am also 100% convinced that mine are black , need to check again ???

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[Cloud9...68]

Very nice! But I always thought there was come kind of protective coating (undercoating?) on the wheel wells that should stay there. Not true?

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[Darryl]

It is Cosmoline and was sprayed all over everything for the shipment across the Atlantic. When it comes to pure concours type stuff, many people think you should leave it there since it was originally that way, but others think it is OK to remove it. I don't concours my car but want to start getting it cleaned up little by little and will show it more in the future.



As for the value of Cosmoline, as stated above, it's purpose was for anti-corrosion and evidently worked VERY well since it's still all over everything 20 years later, but now instead of fresh, clean and yellow, it's hard, crusty and brown. I guess if you drive on chemical treated roads in snow, slush, and slime, maybe leave it on the undercarriage pieces and parts............or just clean more often!



- Darryl

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[rxter]

Another advantage to a black car <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wink.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Rap]

Looks fantastic. Sure makes me appreciate the care the owner of my white car took of it. I looked at the red the other nite and thought, hmm ill do those wells another time! APC huh I must have missed that one and just use the green stuff!

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[flash]

i have to drive my car in the rain on friday (only the 6th time that has happened in its life), and so i'll get a chance to see how this stuff works.

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[Rap]

Good lord what was it, an acid or tar rain?

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[flash]

???

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[DaveN]

LA just has plain brown rain <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/rolleyes.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[flash]

lol - yeah - makes a mess.



rule 1: don't drive the 968 in the rain

rule 2: see rule 1



both previous owners never drove it in the rain. it saw rain for the first time in its life on the way home from cleveland. it was so freaked out it spun out on the freeway at 60mph.



it has seen rain 4 other times, one of which was on a paso robles run.



every time it see rain, it goes up in the air, and every spot under the car is cleaned.

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[Rap]

When they blacktop roads here its amazing how high up the tar can get on a car. I meant acid rain. When I was a mere teenager we had a tremendous amount of coal dust in the air. Not so that you could see it but it was there. Within 15-20 minutes of cleaning and waxing a car it would have a coat of this fine ash on the car.

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[Qfrank]

Looks great. Good project to tackle, i thought they were black. Very clean look.

How about undercoating it, i see lots of rattle can coatings, would that help with road noise?

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[Fox944]

amazing job

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[Carl968]

looks great. I also never realized that they were the body color. You have been referring to the rear wheel wells only so I have to ask the dumb question. Is it the same situation for the fronts as the rear? If so, any photos of a vehicle with all four cleaned.

Thanks,

Carl

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[TSBeckman]

Now you need to get yourself some whitewall tires.

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[Darryl]

Carl968....The front wheel wells have black plastic liners. It is body color behind those liners and does show through at a couple of small places. I will be removing the liners, as that makes it easier to get the front bumper cover off so it can go to the paint shop along with the D1R splitter, cleaning the fronts same as rears, cleaning the liners and then reinstalling everything, so yes, I'll post pics of that process as well.



TSBeckman....I've got some whitewall tire paint in house for re-doing letters on some of my muscle car customers, so maybe I'll do the Toyo T1R letters in white...............well, OK, maybe not!



- Darryl

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