How to clean up a muddy car?

[lgtspecb]

I went out and had some fun yesterday. First time doing a rallyx, placed 6th in class on summer tires and taking it easy over the rough sections.

http://oswegoheritage.org/_temp/rallycross/content/bin/images/large/IMG_6191.jpg

Now, I need to come up with an attack plan for cleaning it. I imagine its a little too dirty for ONR. I washed it and put a fresh coat of wax on it Saturday to help aid in the removal and taped up the areas that I thought would get the dirtiest and or in risk of rock chips (luckily the surface was all dirt and mud, no rocks). Any ideas on how to go about getting rid of any evidence?

[HighEndDetail]

How about some pinnacle xmt gel shampoo soap, wash bucket. And a strong stream of water from the hose.:props:

[AeroCleanse]

If you don't want to break out the hose...

I would use my steamer first then ONR. I also wouldn't assume ONR wont work, you just may need to make lots of passes.

[Mike Phillips]

Lots of water, get the mud and dirt real wet before anything else, like it was sitting in the rain for a week kind of wet.

Pressure washer will force a lot of the dirt off without you physically scrubbing it off, maybe take it to a do-it-yourself car wash and use their high pressure hose to try to pressure wash off the biggest chunks. Getting it soft is key.

When we used to take our truck to the Foster Mud Flat Races that's how we got all the big stuff off afterwards and "yes" I did polish my paint even on my monster truck and it got pretty muddy.... Those are 44" Swampers and it's buried past the center of the axle up front and deeper in the back.



http://www.showcargarage.com/gallery/files/1/FosterMudFlats011.jpg

[agpatel]

Like other have said strong stream of water. Dont forget the underside of the car, just put the front up on jack stands and spray down the under side with a strong get to clean out all the mud and what not that may of gotten caked on in the small spots. Key is to get as much off as you can before touching the paint with a sponge or whatever you use to wash the car.

[lgtspecb]

Thanks guys, its clean and looking new again... well, not exactly, i went camping a few weeks ago and the car got pretty sappy and then just the minor swirls that have surfaced over the months since its last detail.

I hosed it down with just running water until all the chunks just dripped off, then I sprayed it down with the foam gun using a mixture of onr and optimum car wash, let that sit for a about 5 minutes and then hosed it off using a hard stream. While the car was wet after the foam and rinse I removed all the tape and rinsed it again. Using the two bucket method with an ounce of onr in each and opt car wash in my wash bucket I just washed as usual but cleaned my mitt about twice as often. Half way through I prepared new buckets and grabbed a new mitt. Flushed the car with running water and blotted dry with a cobra ww, then used a mixture of onr and opt id to qd with a cobra deluxe. I inspected the paint and anywhere I thought I saw scuffs turned out to just be dried on wax from the day before. The wheels wells are still caked with mud and I haven't attempted to clean the wheels yet. I had to do the entire wash in the dark so I was nervous the whole time. I couldn't tell if the mitt was getting dirty or if I was missing any spots.

Turns out it was pretty easy to clean up. The hood, roof, front and back weren't too bad and since I had waxed it the day before I went out to get it dirty and had taped up the real trouble areas the only real trouble was on the doors. Since I couldn't see, I just cleaned my mitt very frequently.

I will repeat the whole process next month :)

Nice pic of the truck, I wouldn't want to wash that thing, lol.