To clean or not to clean?

[SteveMelchiorre]

I have another thread running about my Helicoil woes... but once I get my truck back I was thinking of giving the undercarriage a good cleaning. Gentle scraping with a screwdriver has produced 2 dustpans full of solid grease/dirt clods.

So should I do this? Or is the magic "patina" holding my truck together?

...and can I go so far as to fill my power washer up with engine de-greaser and go at it full force?

Steve...

I've also attached a pic of my kids washing it the other weekend before all this happened.

While your at it check out my wacky tailgate. One of the previous owners cut a slot in it to dispense feed out of the back!

[Merle Coggins]

My tailgate had a similar door. It looked like my truck was used to haul grain or feed. It originated on a Iowa farm. The bottom of the gate was too rotted to save, but I found a good one from another forum member.

[bkahler]

Putting a gate like that in the tailgate was a common practice for farmers in Nebraska. I would say a good 2/3 of the trucks I found in junk yards there had the gate modification done to them.

Brad

[greg g]

Cleaing that stuff off, is up to you, it is nearly the perfect undercoating. Its a mix of oil mist from the road draft tube, road dust, oil and grease from leaks, and road oil. stuff they put down on dirt roads to keep the dust down around folks houses. As you notice as you scrape it off, you are exposing fresh paint or clean parts, that probably would have corroded to dust if not covered by the stuff. I just scrapped a bunch off my 46 P15, in order to find all the grease fittings to do a gease job. Paint on the tie rod ends which have been there since before I bought the car in 70 was good as new.