Cleaning The Engine Bay (Part One)

Over the past few months I'd been rotating between jobs to try to keep myself motivated. While my zinc parts were being plated I cracked on with work to clean the engine bay.

March 2022

By now, the whole engine bay area was starting to look far healthier than it had when I first 'rediscovered' the car in the barn.....

Engine bay - April 2015

Back then, I'd given it a wipe down with white spirits and a pressure wash. 

Engine bay - September 2015

Having got that far, the chassis pretty much stayed that way for another five or six years while I gradually removed and worked on the pieces that were bolted to it.

Engine bay - January 2020

All the engine bay pipework had been removed back in January 2020 and to give me better access to remove the suspension units.

Engine Bay Pipework

And about a year later I removed the suspension units. you can read about that HERE. With the pipework and then the suspension units out of the way, the years and years of road dirt and grease were visible.

Muck.....

.....muck.....

......and even more muck.

It all took some shifting. And meant even more removal of parts to give me the access I needed.I started with the front suspension areas as, being under the wheel arches, those areas seemed to have picked up the most muck.

As good a place to start as any....

There is a cluster of hydraulic pipes that run front to back along the left hand sill. On later cars there are in two parts with a join near the middle of each - beneath the 'B' pillars. But on my car each pipe is a continuous length. 

Hydraulic pipes under the left hand sill

Each end is shaped and so they can't be removed without bending and weakening them. Or cutting. I did wonder whether I could cut each pipe to remove it, then add a new flare and nut to the cut ends. All I would need to buy was the join pieces for the middles. I reasoned that the size of the join piece might compensate for the cut. However my pipes were in good condition and the joints were a balance between convenience and added cost (plus loss of originality) - so I decided to work around them.

Pipes emerging from the left hand sill

I didn't want to use Jizer and then need to rinse with water for fear of it flooding into all the seems and gaps, so I used white spirit in a spray gun (or stippled on with a brush) to loosen the dirt, and then rags and tissues to clean up the black runny mess I created. Gradually the dirt started to loosen and revealed shiny paint beneath. Well that was a surprise!

I removed the remaining pipe clips and fittings and gave everything a whizz over with a wire wheel on a drill to remove loose rust and paint. 

There was a surprising amount to do but it was very rewarding to start to find solid car underneath all that muck.

The first of many piles of dirt

After cleaning the two wheel arch areas I moved on to cleaning the 'tusks'. These are awkward shapes and it was slow work. At least I had already cleaned and painted their undersides.

Not much rust but an awkward shape.

All of this cleaning work took several passes to move dirt, loose paint, stubborn paint and surface rust. I started using a wire wheel brush on an electric drill - but that really didn't have much impact. 

Starting to see the difference

I ended up using a wire cup on an angle grinder and a twisted wire wheel on a different angle grinder - alternating between them as the task dictated.

Gradually I got back to bare metal - with no nasty surprises along the way.

Some nice details starting to emerge

Back to bare metal

I ended this phase by degreasing everything with panel wipe. Twice! And then giving everything a wash of phosphoric acid to kill any remains rust. This time I was happy for it to find it's way into seams. I'm leaving the cleaning there for the moment. I need a change again to keep me motivated.

All covered with phosphoric acid