Dry Ice undercarriage cleaning

[Lorsar]

I bit the bullet and had my undercarriage dry iced.  I mainly wanted to get the undercoating off to find any rust issues.  Some interesting weld/patch work in the wheel wells.

The cost was $250 an hour and it came to a total of $2750 for 11 hours.  Had it done at Merrit Motor Co. in Kannapolis, NC - referred to me by Steve Brooks at PagodaFest.

[Lorsar]

some wheel well pics

[Lorsar]

I already knew my front fenders and hood were replaced. Looks like it had a major front end collision

[Cees Klumper]

That left front wheel well photo shows a 'repair' that I see from time to time: aluminum attached with rivets, rather than proper steel welded in place.

Seems like the blasting cleaned things up nicely.

[Lorsar]

looks like some frame straightening here

[mdsalemi]

And now, what do you do?

[Lorsar]

Good question, not sure just yet.

[lreppond]

I’ve been thinking about getting the undercarriage dry ice blasted as well. A couple of questions:
1. Does this procedure always remove all the original undercoating? I thought it didn’t but maybe you requested something more aggressive?
2. Did any painted surfaces sustain any damage?
3. Did you notice more leaking of fluids after this procedure? 
4. If there was any overspray from body work, did this remove it?

Any additionalupsides or downsides to doing this would be appreciated. 

[Lorsar]

1. It only removed the old zeibart undercoating that was applied either by the dealer or sometime after.  What you see in my after picture is the original shutz but it is stained from the undercoating.
2. No
3. Only found a small pinhole leak in a fuel line after cleaning and patched it
4. Overspray where?  Everything was pretty much undercoated

[mdsalemi]

Len, too bad you were not able to come to PagodaFest in Chicago. We had a local company, Euroquipe, who was also a sponsor of the event, give a presentation on dry ice blasting.

I believe the video will be available before too long.

But I think the short answer is it can all be adjusted from doing almost nothing to removing everything. It’s all in the hands of the skilled operator.

[Davek1]

My car had its engine bay and undercarriage dry ice cleaned before I purchased it, to show the car had had no repairs ever carried out on it. It did a fantastic job but did remove some of the original under seal and some paint from the engine bay around the brake booster and radiator expansion bottle . I was told this happens because the the sudden temperature drop. I would recommend it though.

[rwmastel]

It's my understanding that it is the skill/experience of the technician doing the work.  How much pressure to dial up on the system and how close to hole the nozzle to the surface.

[TJMart]

Hey Lori,

Looks like they did a good job! Were you happy with their work?

Any pics of the front end?

Thanks

Tony

[Lorsar]

Yes Tony, I would recommend them.

[lreppond]

This process is quite remarkable.  When you compare the before and after photos you realize just how much crud has been removed.  As Michael and Rodd have pointed out, the procedures depends on the qualifications and experience of the operator and this is somewhat frightening.  The closest person to me doing this work is in Grass Valley, CA.  He primarily works on vintage Porsche so I’m reasonably confident he has the expertise to do this correctly.   It’s still a little nerve racking to hand over ones baby. 

Lori, thanks for sharing these photos with our group!

[Jordan]

It's too bad you didn't weigh the car before and after.  Would be interesting to know how much lighter it is with all the crud removed.

[Iconic]

Marcus, That is a great question. I'm curious too.
Also, how about protection? Now that it is all cleaned off, do you leave it exposed, or do you protect it all in some way???

[rwmastel]

I'm not sure what you mean?  The paint on the suspension, steering, engine, and other parts is still there.  That's the original protection.  The aftermarket (Ziebart?) undercoating was removed from the underbody, but not the original Shutz coating.  That's the original protection.

[dirkbalter]

I would also think you need to do some kind of protection. You have rust and some bare metal exposed after the cleaning. As far as protecting the components, its worse than before unless you get in there and do something.