[Farmall] cleaning solvents...steam clean

[Robert L. Holtzer]

Good morning, John!  It would be nice to have a "quicky" method for 
painting preparation.  My last -- yet unfinished - paint job was my F12.  I 
sandblasted it to bare metal, replaced the various oil seals, and primed 
it.  To my vast disappointment, virtually all jointed surfaces to the 
tranny started weeping through the gasketed surfaces!  I drained all the 
oils and decided to let it sit until the weeping stops!

I rented a steam cleaner for one cleanup job.  Nice little diesel-fired 
unit.  Actually it was sort of a last ditch effort to avoid scraping off 
the real hard stuff.  I had pressure washed the tractor prior to the steam 
cleaning.  It was a bit disappointing -- the steam cleaning didn't take 
much additional off.  I would try steaming first next time -- but this is 
unlikely to happen since it cost $90+/day rent.

I've tried diesel as a solvent.  It really is not much good for the 
heavier, older deposits.  Since it is just a light grade oil or 
hydrocarbon, it is not realistic to expect it to be a great solvent.  I 
tried it primarily because a number of ATIS folks seemed to think it was 
great.  Kerosene is better and cleaning solvent (if available) is better yet.

For me the approach seems to be to scrape off the heavy stuff with a blade 
of some type, pressure wash, paint stripper (with methylene chloride), 
re-pressure wash, sandblast, scrape again if anything is left, then prime.

It surprised me to find nicely painted areas underlain by old 
grease!  After seeing how some dealers repaint, it is not too surprising 
the gunk is there but it continues to amaze me how well the paint sticks 
sometimes!

Bob

At 08:13 AM 8/27/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>Morning Bob!   Several years ago I spent a whopping $50 for an old 
>portable oil fired steam cleaner that I use now quite a bit.  I had to 
>weld up some cracks in the coils that froze when somebody forgot to drain 
>the system one winter.  It works on the water pressure in the hose and 
>steam pressure that builds up (not over 175 lbs. psi).  The steam cleaner 
>will remove almost any hard grease---if you have all day to wait for it to 
>soften up!  I always use my pressure washer (3000 psi) to knock off the 
>bulk of the dirt and grease--resorting to scraping the really tough 
>stuff.  Mostly use some "pressure washer solvent" with the steam cleaner 
>as a final step before painting to remove any oil film.  That's about the 
>only thing the solvent is good for in my experience.  I've heard that 
>spraying down a piece of equipment with diesel and letting it soak in for 
>several days is effective for removing the old baked on grease.  Haven't 
>tried that yet.  Painting a tractor would be such a pleasure if someone 
>would just come up with a formula to make dirt and grease disappear with 
>the flick of a stick!   One thing to mention is if you have a good 
>pressure washer a VERY worthwhile assessory is a turbo nozzle.  Really 
>knocks the dirt off fast.  I guess they make a high pressure hot 
>water/steam cleaner that would probably word great, but that's way beyond 
>my tractor budget!    John Wilkens
>
>
>
>At 06:43 AM 08/27/2004, you wrote:
>>I have a Steam Jenny that I bought at a sale for
>>$12.50 and have been using it a bit and like it.  I is
>>not a total repalcement for solvents or oven cleaner
>>though.  Mine is oil fired so to use it you have to
>>fill it with fuel, plug it in to 110V AC, and hook up
>>a water hose.  You can also put soap in the dispensor
>>if you like.  My best results have been treating the
>>part to be cleaned with the "purple stuff" degreaser
>>or oven cleaner then steam it off.  The heat does a
>>lot to melt away the grease.  You must be very careful
>>when using the steam cleaner.  I quickly learned not
>>to spray into blind corners because the hot water
>>comes back on me! OUCH! I am working on cleaning up my
>>steam engine now and nothing seems to work good on
>>that.  It has 99yrs worth of grease that just won't
>>come off.  Much of it is steam cylinder oil that is
>>meant to withstand high temps though.  Now I'm soaking
>>the areas with diesel hoping it will soften the rock
>>hard grease.
>>
>> >
>> > I wonder if any ATISers are using hot steam
>> > cleaning??
>> >
>> > Bob Holtzer
>>
>>
>>=====
>>Andy Glines
>>Evansville, IN
>>
>>
>>
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>
>                    In the wide-open spaces of NE Oregon
>
>
>
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