Diamond911 Posted 22March, 2016 Report Share Posted 22March, 2016 Hi guys,Interested in the feedback on the best way to clean the undercarriage, suspension and brake parts so that they look like new for concours.The past two concours events (in the past few years) the undercarriage judge has provided feedback that I should use a sodium hydroxide based product to clean the undercarriage, suspension and brake parts.I do jack the car up on all fours, takes the wheels off, wheel under the car on a creeper and thoroughly clean the undercarriage etc.But I'm just a bit nervous due to the mix of caustic soda and nearby paint etc on a concours car.I'm thinking the best way would be to put the car up on a hoist and carefully apply and soak the sodium hydroxide cleaner on and then carefully high pressure blast it off. My 3.2 Carrera has won concours outright before as well as top aircooled of show, but I'd still like to address the judges comments regarding the sodium hydroxide aspect. As an aside, this last concours I was blown away with the Wofgang Fuzion wax that I used for the first time.Any feedback welcome on best product(s), practices etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gman993 Posted 22March, 2016 Report Share Posted 22March, 2016 I haven't researched this, but sodium hydroxide is very agressive and will strip anodizing off aluminium. I would be very cautious to proceed with this with further research Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5032 Posted 22March, 2016 Report Share Posted 22March, 2016 Your three2 has never won anything until you post up pics!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnr356 Posted 22March, 2016 Report Share Posted 22March, 2016 dry ice blasting..amazing resultsrecently saw a 964 with this done to it ,backing plates ,calipers etc looked brand new..took all the wax off without damaging anythinga well known local porsche restorer had it done and was amazed,saved mega hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond911 Posted 22March, 2016 Author Report Share Posted 22March, 2016 Your three2 has never won anything until you post up pics!!! fair call I'm on a mine site so only have a few happy snaps on the phone which I've just managed to work out how to upload to photo bucket. Not sure if this will work but here goes.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mezger Autosport Posted 23March, 2016 Report Share Posted 23March, 2016 Dry ice blasting is the key, trust me it's the way to go, especially on your car as it has such original petina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buchanan Automotive Posted 23March, 2016 Report Share Posted 23March, 2016 Whilst i realise you would like to follow the judges comments and uber clean the under side of the car all i can not recommend it at all. When these cars left the factory they left with a factory protectant or Beez Wax as we like to call it. I have attached a few pictures of a 1993 3.6 turbo that we work on. (its got just under 6000kms on the clock). As you can see the casing, suspension and more importantly the plated parts remain in new condition. For as long as this protectant stays in place the parts will remain in hibernation underneath it. Being concourse Judges ourselves at the PCNSW events we have never truely understood why this has to be removed to have a clean car, personally the car left the factory in this way and it should be judged accordingly being more original then one that has been cleaned. This is not the most important aspect of this conversation though as through experience with a few of our customers having Concourse cars that go to these events we have seen too many times where the wax has been removed and the nuts and bolts look fantastic until the first drive and they get a little posture on them and the start to corrode. We actually had a customer with a 944 turbo that went as high as 2nd in PCNSW full concourse and it was a stunner for that day. He removed with a steam cleaner and cleaning solutions the underbody sealer and the next time the car came in for servicing every bolt from front to back had surface corrosion on it. The one time i would say go for it would be if the car in mention was to be a museum car and never driven or taken outside. RegardsSean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeM Posted 23March, 2016 Report Share Posted 23March, 2016 Bravo sir! Very well said Sean I think people can 'over restore' cars if they're in the concourse show circuit. Porsche didn't have perfect 2pac paint under the hood back in the 60's or 70's, they waved a spray gun full of satin black aimlessly under there. I need to clean my car better underneath, yet I won't be using the methods mentioned by others here. WD40 and a few rags ;-) No matter what you clean it with, you must coat it with something for the reasons mentioned above Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coastr Posted 24March, 2016 Report Share Posted 24March, 2016 Mmmm turboMy car still has waxy stuff on suspension components etc but the engine gearbox has been all cleaned off. Not sure if the waxy stuff is factory or aftermarket dealer type rust protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarreraG50 Posted 24March, 2016 Report Share Posted 24March, 2016 Hi guys,Interested in the feedback on the best way to clean the undercarriage, suspension and brake parts so that they look like new for concours.The past two concours events (in the past few years) the undercarriage judge has provided feedback that I should use a sodium hydroxide based product to clean the undercarriage, suspension and brake parts.I do jack the car up on all fours, takes the wheels off, wheel under the car on a creeper and thoroughly clean the undercarriage etc.But I'm just a bit nervous due to the mix of caustic soda and nearby paint etc on a concours car.I'm thinking the best way would be to put the car up on a hoist and carefully apply and soak the sodium hydroxide cleaner on and then carefully high pressure blast it off. My 3.2 Carrera has won concours outright before as well as top aircooled of show, but I'd still like to address the judges comments regarding the sodium hydroxide aspect. As an aside, this last concours I was blown away with the Wofgang Fuzion wax that I used for the first time.Any feedback welcome on best product(s), practices etc Hi Diamond911, Great car, (might be biased ) , If yours is indeed a Jubilee car, its quite rare, would be worth tracking down the original wheels etc, -:For the model year 1988, the Signature/Commemorative Edition cars were made celebrating 250,000 911 cars made (on June 3rd, 1987). It was available as Coupe, Targa and Cabriolet. Color was 697-Diamond Blue Metallic with color coded 15" Fuchs wheels. Seats were finished in silver blue leather with Dr. Porsche's signature on the headrests. Silver blue carpets in the interior and front storage compartment were part of this model. A dash plaque was on the glove box as well as the Club Sport short shifter. Some cars had spoilers and model delete options.250 cars stayed in Germany300 went to the US325 for R.O.W. (50 RHD for the UK) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond911 Posted 25March, 2016 Author Report Share Posted 25March, 2016 Hi John, thanks for your note. Yes it is an original Commemorative Edition. It does have the original 15" Fuchs (7" and 8") on it but a PO painted the centers from Diamond Blue to Black. At some stage I may return the Fuch centers to their original Diamond Blue colour. BTW, there were only 5 Commemorative Edition Australian delivered cars out of the world wide total of 875.Thanks also Sean to your great post above and all the other input. To date I've been very cautious with what I have ever applied to my car and I suspect this will continue into the future, irrespective of the concours judge comments. thanks.regards,BryanHi Diamond911, Great car, (might be biased ) , If yours is indeed a Jubilee car, its quite rare, would be worth tracking down the original wheels etc, -: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiller Posted 25March, 2016 Report Share Posted 25March, 2016 The waxy stuff is called Cosmoline, there are various theories out there as to why it's there. Some say it's to prevent corrosion when the cars travel the world on ships to their allocated locations. But, the euro cars get it too so that theory is void. Porsche obviously put it there for a reason. On my GT3 its still there after 12 years, the issue being over time it has gone to a black dirty colour and not the nice clean honey tinge seen in the pics above. Still, not that bad. I will probably tackle this and the wheel wells with a tooth brush and a citrus based cleaner just to remove any oily residue that may have built up over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazzieman Posted 31March, 2016 Report Share Posted 31March, 2016 I will probably tackle this and the wheel wells with a tooth brush and a citrus based cleaner just to remove any oily residue that may have built up over the years. A tooth brush? A toothbrush is good for food debris, not baked on residue. Fine brass brush is what you need. It polishes bare metal as well. Wear eye protection and not just glasses.Oh noes I posted on a concours thread! I must atone immediately! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiller Posted 31March, 2016 Report Share Posted 31March, 2016 A tooth brush? A toothbrush is good for food debris, not baked on residue. Fine brass brush is what you need. It polishes bare metal as well. Wear eye protection and not just glasses.Oh noes I posted on a concours thread! I must atone immediately! Indeed a toothbrush, all you need is agitation, the correct cleaner does the rest. I dont want to polish my suspension, just clean it I might give this stuff a gohttps://www.adamspolishes.com.au/product/adams-all-purpose-cleaner-16-oz/I have quite a bit of their other car care stuff and pretty happy with it so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazzieman Posted 31March, 2016 Report Share Posted 31March, 2016 Indeed a toothbrush, all you need is agitationmanual or electric? paste? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiller Posted 1April, 2016 Report Share Posted 1April, 2016 manual or electric? paste?I prefer Oral-B. Electric saves my wrists! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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