Cleaning Galvanised steel/ Ifor lovin'

[wills-mill]

Has anyone got any tips when it comes to cleaning winter road grime and a bit of diesel belch from the front of Ifor trailers. At the moment my trailer (like most things) gets an occasional squirt of dilute traffic film remover and a good hose down, but is there something a bit cleverer that will bite through the muck and get the galvanised surface clean.

 

Ta, W

[tommer9]

A steam cleaner would do it.

Or the likes of 'muck off', or brillo pads maybe.

[penfold]

you could try muc-off which was originally developed for cleaning bicycles and it was shown in an lro a couple of months back so could be worth a shufti.

[armchairarborist]

the book that came with my iw lm105 says steam clean/jetwash after every use to retain its shiny clean galv, yeh right like thats going to happen, but a good steam cleaner should get the worst off and maybe a wax up will stop it getting so bad:thumbup:, mines black at the moment:thumbdown:

[treequip]

Mix up some household vinegar and a detergent of your choice, the detergent will lift off any grime and the weak acid of the vinegar will take off some if not all of the oxidation on the galv.

 

Because you are using an acid you should cover yourself in an excessive amount of PPE, head to toe with at least a couple of layers should do it (probably best not to use your chainsaw pants). If you use anything stronger like say a couple of spoonful’s of caustic soda three layers of PPE would be better.

 

Andy

[Rupe]

Brillo pads!! Works a treat, but you need some elbow grease!!

[treequip]

Brillo pads!! Works a treat, but you need some elbow grease!!

 

Easy with the elbow tiger, that galvanic coating isn’t that thick.

 

My neighbour scoured his way through the galv on one of those Halfords jobbies

 

Andy

[niftysteve]

brick cleaning acid work well

[wills-mill]

It looks like I should have a go with a bit of an acid solution on one area and an alkaline solution on another......

 

Vinegar vs Ammonia I reckon

[18 stoner]

Easy with the elbow tiger, that galvanic coating isn’t that thick.

 

My neighbour scoured his way through the galv on one of those Halfords jobbies

 

Andy

 

Scouring it will wear it away but there's a big differnce between electro galv and hot dip galv as far as thickness goes. The electro halfords type are very thin.