Undercarriage detailing

[mooch91]

To start off - I've always been obsessive about the cleanliness of my vehicles. So much so that I've bought a "daily beater" to avoid needing to use my newer vehicle in bad weather (rain, snow). Maybe it's an OCD thing, but once you drive a new vehicle through the water and snow, to me it's just never the same: the backside of the wheels gets covered with pitting and road grime, wheel wells start to gray-out, exhaust turns brown, etc.

Unfortunately, this will be coming to an end for me soon. I'll need to start driving my new pickup as a daily driver. I'm trying to get prepared for what I'll need to do to "accept" this. With a truck, it's particularly bad because the undercarriage is not exactly well finished to begin with and there is so much visible area underneath. Even the best detailed paint finish looks bad with a dingy, gray undercarriage as a backdrop.


What do you recommend:

• Let it be - focus on the paint and the interior and recognize that it's a daily driver and it will get dirty underneath.
• Clean the underside of the vehicle with the same passion as the paint and interior.

If I choose the former, any suggestions on how to get over the OCD of not wanting to drive it in the rain or snow? I know that some of the other "car crazy" guys on this board must know what I'm talking about.

For the latter, any tips or suggestions? Seems that tire dressing is a popular option for darkening up the undercarriage after a quick cleaning. Any other thoughts for cleaning up under something as big as a pickup truck? I could probably spend twice as long on the undercarriage, on my back on the wet ground, if I tried to keep it impeccably clean. And in the end, it will only take one quick rain to undo the effort.

Thanks.

[JSM]

Re: Undercarriage detailing

I understand your concern fully about not wanting to "tarnish" that new feeling of your car. However, it's always important to realize that "it is what it is", and no matter what you do in life with your vehicle, it's going to age and depreciate with each mile that you drive (or day that it sits parked in your garage/driveway). If it's a late model vehicle that is driven daily, do your best to make it shine and be the best looking on the block, with the expectation in mind that a year from today that it will be worth less than it is right now, no matter what the circumstances. It's a hard mindset to get over, but you just have to work on it. Even if you did "pickle" it and kept it in storage for ten years in a completely airtight environment, you'd still have a car that would need major work due to all of the fluids sitting and/or vinyl/rubber components drying out and rotting from age.

If it's a classic car on the other hand, that's a completely different story. Such a situation requires one to be diligent about upkeep and care, as most vehicles like that appreciate in value due to their rare value (just think something along the lines of a frame-off, fully restored 60s muscle-era car).

As for the undercarriage, I actually just posed this question a few days earlier, so hopefully this thread should help.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39485

Enjoy your new ride to the fullest!

[tcope1]

Re: Undercarriage detailing

I have a 2006 F150 that only has 26k miles on it. I seldom drive it as I don't want to get it dirty... especially in winter. I'd recommend that you take it to the local self serve car wash every so often and power wash the under carriage of the truck to keep it clean. I use Collinite 476s on the wheels to help protect them. I also put it on the back wheel wells which are painted but not finished like the rest of the paint. I don't buff the wax off in the wheel wells.

I think you will find that the winter grim does not really affect the truck as long as you maintain the paint with a good coat of sealant and/or wax.

[William_F]

Re: Undercarriage detailing

If I choose the former, any suggestions on how to get over the OCD of not wanting to drive it in the rain or snow?

You can always turn it into a slammed low rider. At lest then no one can SEE the underside

In all seriousness, it just something you have to come to accept and you can either put in the work it takes to keep it at a level you're ok with or learn to let it go.

I my self am still struggling with the let it go. My wife is very understanding of my OCD nature with our cars and has learned to accept the fact that when we're out, I might stop before getting in the car, bust out an MF and bottle of QD and clean something before leaving where ever we happen to be.

With my wife's CRV, I periodically take it to the coin op and spary the visible parts of the underside with the pre soak/grime remover and spray that off and then use the tire cleaner/ degreaser and high pressure spray that off. It never really gets back to like "new" condition, but it makes enough of a difference that the truck looks much better when I keep that up.

Once you get the underside clean, you might try using the Hot Shine Tire foam on it to keep it up. I've used that on my wheel wells before on the theory it was the same grime as on the tires. While it wasn't perfect, it did get a lot of the gunk off and I spent way less time scrubbing the wells.

[ripple_effect]

Re: Undercarriage detailing

you can still use your truck as a daily driver and maintain its "original" look. however, it will take some effort to do that. for starters, the undercarriage takes all the abuse so more frequent cleaning will be required.

Besides, truck looks better when it's quite dirty, don't you think?

I drive two vehicles- a truck and a sedan. Both were daily driven, truck goes to my pop and sedan for me. I applied the same TLC for the truck as if it were the sedan. though the truck tends to get filty faster than the sedan, it is quite cleaner than the others when parked along with others.

Best of luck!

[tguil]

Re: Undercarriage detailing

".....Let it be - focus on the paint and the interior and recognize that it's a daily driver and it will get dirty underneath...." For goodness sake, it's a daily driver and a truck on top if it. Just being sort of "OCD" about the paint and interior is enough for me.

Tom