Steam Cleaning

As many of you know, my obsession for clean cars knows no bounds. Nothing is as satisfying to me as having a functional car that is cleaner than average – and that’s saying something in this country where EVERY car seems to be relatively clean (except for those drift cars…).

Anyway, a while ago I had purchased a steam cleaner for home use (Google "Vapamore" - that's it!). It was good for the initial clean up of our new (rental) house, but afterwards, I found myself not using it all. Then of course, the lightbulb – use it for my car!

Where would I use it? Certainly would not be the places I polish, but probably areas like the wheelwells, and the under chassis area, maybe the engine. But I had to buy jack stands first.

My first experience with jackstands, I ended up buying super stable ones – but they were too tall for frequent use. As readers to this blog will recall, with such a low car, I have to drive up on ramps first, THEN jack up the car. So the ideal height is high enough that I can work on the car (ie take the wheels off, etc.) but not so high that the jack is at its limit.

Anyway, once I bought these low jackstands, I was in business.

When I decided a few weeks ago to switch back to the StarSpecs from the track tires, during the switchover I used the steam cleaner to clean the wheel wells.

The dirtiest, for some reason, was the right rear. Here are some pictures.

Before:


After:


Before:


After:



The difference is huge!

The technique is not simply to apply the steam. Often, I have to get things going by spraying on some Simple Green before steaming, but in any case, the steam loosens the dirt, and I can simply wipe off.

Next, I plan to steam clean the underside...stay tuned...