Junkyard Jeep Inspires Us to Do Some Spring Cleaning
With a few easy steps and specific techniques, you can make your Jeep look like a new ride.
We’re going to guess that your Jeep doesn’t belong in a junkyard. But if it has been used properly, it could probably use a little deep cleanse. Larry Kosilla from Ammo NYC knows a thing or two about getting a vehicle cleaned, and in this video, he shows how to properly clean a YJ that has seen better days.
The dirt on this Jeep comes from sitting outside, and due to age rather than the kind of dirt you’d find from going mudding. As such, it does need to be treated differently. Just using a pressure washer won’t work on oxidation and moss and mildew.
“We soaked the paint in froth to soften and loosen the caked-on debris, and after a few minutes of soaking we power washed the paint,” Kosilla states. “For the heavy spots of mold, I soaked the spots with a cleaning agent much like i’d do with inside mold, and it was removed quickly with a soft bristle brush.” He wasn’t even done yet, saying, “next we foamed the paint, and agitated with a microfiber towel.”
While Kosilla might appear to be doing a lot of repetitive work on this Wrangler, all steps are preparing for a final clean. “On dirty cars, using compressed air can help dislodge trapped junk that will eventually be released by the vibration of the polisher,” Kosilla advises.
If you wanted to go as far as doing polishing of your paint, be patient. “When focusing on the old chalky paint, I had to use a technique that requires a lot of pad blow out, so keep the compressor handy,” Kosilla notes. For this, he uses a random orbital buffer to get rid of hazing, and can polish and buff further if that is desirable.
Interiors require a different kind of care. Older seating surfaces can’t withstand abrasive techniques that new Jeep models can. A rotating brush is effective, but Kosilla says it would “only exacerbate the seat fraying I see here.” So he uses a smaller random orbital that uses minimal rotation. This agitates the fibers enough to lift off dirt and debris. In order to keep from saturating the foam in the seat, use minimal soap and water. The carpets, on the other hand, can withstand more heavy-duty techniques. A scrub attachment on a drill with soap and pressure washer will get these cleaned up.
As Kosilla states, the main objection for cleaning is to “retain as much of the material’s original integrity.” So it doesn’t necessarily need to be perfectly clean. Sometimes you can do more harm than good. With these steps in mind, we cant wait to see your before/after photos of your cleaned up Jeep.
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