Cleaning the engine bay secrets!

[rdorman]

Like all things with me related to my car, there is a constant state of change as I continuously strive for the perfection that I will never achieve!

Here is my current state of imperfection (but it looks pretty good):
- cool motor, lots of time, beer, rags, towels various brushes from nice soft one to brass wire.
- open beer. take a big sip. use visualization to see the process and the final product since by the end you may not be able to see the final product
- check and top off all fluids, don't forget your own fluids!
- spray everything down with Griots engine cleaner
- while that is soaking in, aggitate any heavy dirt with the appropriate brush. I have tried harsh lanquage to aggitate the cleaner but the brush seems to work better.
- with a bucket full of warm water with car wash, I give it the sweet sponge bath it deserves
- open beer
- remove sprayer from hose, rinse thoroughly from the top down. do not clean the carb this way. bad idea. various electrical items are not crazy about this either but I have found that they tend to dry out during nap time
- get out leaf blower, fire that baby up and have at it! Blow all that water out of there
- close hood and wash car that you just made a mess of
- open hood
- towel dry where you can
- open beer
- use WD40 and a scothbrite pad on all non polished bare metal surfaces
- use Griots engine detailer on all plastic, rubber type parts (this does not need done a lot since the stuff lasts)
- use mother, simichrome, what ever is at hand at the moment for the polishes bits
- Griots chassis detailer for the bits of chassis that show that you did not get clean (only use this if its show time, so hardly ever!)
- treat painted surfaces like you would the out side of the car, I like Griots speed shine
- spay corrosion protection on all exposed wiring connections (solenoids, juntion blocks, etc)
- open another beer and sit while all this stuff sort of soaks in
- wipe the whole darn thing back down again using various rags on different bits
- step back and admire all the things I want to change
- close hood and wipe down out side of car again because of all the damn over spray
- finish beer, smoke, take nap
- take it out, run the pi$$ out of it, get caught in a rain storm, repeat process.

The tire foam idea is sounding better and better and better..........

Rick