Elbow grease, a ****load of rags, basic hand tools, brass and steel brushes, aluminum polish, etc.

Take everything apart, clean it, and put it back together. There is no easy way to do this.

Repeat next year.

 

Start with this: http://www.impalassforum.com/tech/engine/engine_detailing.htm

Then see how it looks.

 

That sounds pretty simple enough to start off with...were the inner wheel well the body color or flat black??

 

First Session, a lot of time.

Pulled some parts, painted, sandblasted, pulled the intake, re-wire battery, new rad... a lot more effort...

Guess what it looks like now 1.5 winters later....

 

The wheelwells can be brought back to life if you remove all brackets and tanks then use just some simple cleaner wax or a light polish. They should shine right up

 

Before I knew how sensitive our optis were I pressure washed my engine bay.. the whole thing.. didn't cover anything.. just tried to avoid the airbox since the computer was under it and the alternator.. luckily nothing happened.. besides a squeeky clean engine bay.. still pretty clean to this day and that was like 6 months ago and over 10k miles since

 

Just use some common sense and the opti will be fine.

 

Exactly!

 

So how hard are these motors to pull out?? If it's nottoo bad it would almost be worth pulling everything out and sand blast and paint different things to make it look pretty again

 

Well don't pull the motor just to clean it. Like was mentioned it is going to take time. Start on one side first, the fenderwells should clean up good. It will be hard work, but worth it in the end

 

A good degreaser warm soap and water and a towel. Ever car I have you can eat off the dam engine

 

What type of battery terminals do you have? I am looking for a good set.

Thanks.

 

If you're asking me, the ones I use are old knukonceptz ones, I don't know if they still sell them. I buy them now for friends at Partsexpress, they're the same thing, just generic. I like them because they had enough openings, plus a decent looking spot for ring terminals.

Really made getting rid of the side post wiring a lot easier.

 

Lots of elbow grease Ive been working on my engine bay for 2 weeks now at 4-5 hours a day. Ive taken the bay apart. Im doing a wire tuck, cleaned everything I can get my hands on, and painting evertything flat black. I swear my car prolly dropped 4lbs of dirt off easy. I have Trif cell pics. Im gonna take some snaps tommorow.

So heres the ishy pics.

Wire tuck was just in the begining stages its coming along nicely.

If you have a DD and realy want to do it good, break down, and get up in it.


Still have a long way to go, ill post good pics tommorow.

 

I saw some pics of a wire tuck done on an fbody and one on a honda and they do look really nice I just dont have the time for something like that cuz it is my DD...I think im going to go with the pressure washing method and just try and be careful...my buddy sells alot of 5.3 and 6.0 chevy truck motors and I am just going to use the methods that he uses to clean those to sell them...and if for some crazy reason I mess all kinds of stuff up then I'll have to make my chevelle my DD and put me in one of his LQ4's

 

Yeah I def wouldnt do this if it was a DD, its alot of work.

 

compressed air and long blow nozzle/wand (2-3 feet) can do wonders, you would be surprised on how much dirt and dust you can blow out thing like the alternator, just blow it the vents and you get a dust storm! I would also do this before you use water so you dont make mud pies under your under hood. I never do any more than blow it out with air but I dont really car how it looks under the hood.

 

See, this is where my method differs, that would have been far too easy, I removed my alt, disassembled it, and wire brushed the entire thing, lol.

I was also able to grease the bearings while I was in there too though... so at least that's a bonus.

Edit, I also sandblasted and painted the hardware and pulley and fan while I was at it too though. I'm sure there's a medicine for this somewhere.

 

Well I did it today...pressure washed it and stuff then decided to do the home depot intake mod...will post pictures as soon as wife is off the computer

 

Just after using some "mean green" armor all and lots of rubbing

After the pressure wash more armor all

Deciding to do a home depot intake...even though I went to lowes with "the best helper" as he calls him self

Now I just need to get some fuel rail covers

close up

close up of the cap of "nutella" that i am using temporarily

 

MUCH better! nice work.

 

Good job dude. Get some paint on those pulleys and knock some of that oxidation off that aluminum and you'll be good to go.

 

Yes that will be my next goal

 

I hose the engine down with water then give the whole thing a spray down with Simple Green. I let the Simple Green sit for 10 minutes (warm or cool engine), rinse it off and then do it again two more times. This gets most of the grease and dirt off. For rust try spraying on Naval Jelley. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then rinse off. If there is any rust that wont come off then use a toothbrush with the naval jelley.

 

I use simple green for everything...actually mean green it's the dollar store brand.

I have heard of naval jelly but where do I get it??

 

Just FYI, if you have any polished billet items do not use simple green at full strength (I mix it 50/50) or let it sit on those items very long. It will damage them.

 

cleaned it up

Cleaned up a members car a couple weeks ago.
Started out pretty bad but came out nice.

 

Niiiiiiccccee...that looks great

 

I will take some pics once it's not raining. I just finished yesterday. I removed the entire intake ( it was leaking at the ends) and painted it polished the fins on the top and the fuel rail added a new polished throttle body replaced some vacuum hoses. I can't find the before pic but it was nasty.