Degreasing my engine area Options

[VaccaRabite]

I have the under-pans cleared. The last body area that I need to glear is the super grimey area where the engine and tranny used to be.

Is there anything that I can put on it to clean off the grime easily? I don't want to have to rinse off the metal with water. The entire car right now is bare metal until it gets warm enough to paint. Adding some chemical that I have to rise with water would be a nightmare. I'd rather lightly sand the body to clear flash rust then introduce water in my garage and really have rust start growing.

But I also can't paint over greasy metal, either.

Zach

[highways]

I've been cleaning engine tin this week, had a bunch of various products I tried- Goof Off, Dish Soap, Steel Wool, Brake Cleaner, Engine Foaming Cleaner, Acetone, Auto Prep pre paint wipe down stuff, and Simple Green. Not everything worked.

What worked the best was:
*Brake Cleaner
*scrubbed with Steel Wool or Scotch Brite pads
*followed by Simple Green... again scrubbed with Steel Wool or Scotch Brite pads
*sponge rinse with water. Paper towels help too.
*Repeat as many times as needed until it's really clean.

Once you think it's clean- you should prep for primer immediately.
*Auto Prep de-greasing paint prep wipe down with clean cotton rags (before you sand- to get the last bits of grease out)
*then lite scuff sanding (280 grit, wet/dry is fine) to provide a 'footing' for new paint
*rinse with water/sponge to get rid of sludge
*paper towel dry
*then Auto Prep wipe down again for final insurance (wear clean gloves so as not to add any grease!!)
*Paint with quality primer
*additionally you'll want to paint with your top coat within the recommended time frame if possible. Usually 24 hours. If you wait longer, you may have to sand again.

I'm using SEM Self Etching primer, or straight black SEM Trim Paint (also self etching, and both in rattle cans) because I have a few bare metal spots. But I am leaving most of the original paint on as long as it is solidly bonded on the car. I think it's a little overboard to obsess about getting down to bare metal everywhere. As long existing paint is solid, thouroughly degreased, and scuffed up- there shouldn't be any adhesion problems. If you have all bare metal you may want to put some sort of high quality auto body shop type metal etcher on it especially if you aren't using a self etching primer. My engine tin looks awsome now!

this link has great info

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