Dry Ice cleaning Ford GT stuff


B.M.F.

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jan 29, 2009
1,810
Minnesota
I recently purchased a dry ice cleaning machine for the cleaning and restoration process for the GT work I’m doing.

Being I’m doing 7 cars right now from pretty much bare chassis builds to finished cars, it has cut my paint prep time down a ton. Pretty much all the new front bumper covers from ford have flaky primer and need to be stripped. I can also strip hoods to bare fiberglass to expose the pin hole problems, all with out damaging the material beneath it and with out spending lots of man hours doing it the traditional way by hand. I’m not doing it any cheaper then by hand but it’s allowing me to work quicker and not have to send stuff to different company’s to have the work done.

If there is any sort of fire damage it really shines! Truly amazing how well it cleaned the red car with the engine fire I’m fixing.

I’ve been cleaning brake rotors, suspension parts, engine parts, rubber and plastic items (really brings out the black again in plastic/rubber). Does a great job of taking grime off floor pans and such under the car.

My guys and I have been really working on coming up with ways to clean the grime off suspension stuff as the brake rotor dust really etches in to the aluminum and into the wheel bearings. Unless the car is ultra low miles most cars above 3-4000 miles could use a good cleaning. So we dry ice clean as much as we can and in some cases we pull all of the suspension apart and clean the rest by hand with solutions I've come up.

Here’s a few pics and I’ll be adding some more soon.
 

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twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,189
Las Vegas, NV
I've thought about getting one of them to clean the calcium off my pool tile. I'd have to check if the CO2 going into the pool messes up the water - I think you get carbonic acid but I can't imagine it's a large enough quantity to matter.
 

extrap

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 16, 2020
1,898
Gainesville FL
Hey, that's pretty cool!





🤪
 

B.M.F.

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jan 29, 2009
1,810
Minnesota
I've thought about getting one of them to clean the calcium off my pool tile. I'd have to check if the CO2 going into the pool messes up the water - I think you get carbonic acid but I can't imagine it's a large enough quantity to matter.
It’s about 75k for a good machine and compressor/dryer etc lots of uses for it tho.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,189
Las Vegas, NV
Oh. I was hoping for the $200 harbor freight solution. I guess a spray bottle of acid and tile grout scraper next year too.

My daughter's condo was a fire unit. (She bought it after it was rebuilt) they were working on adjacent unit and they used one of the co2 blasters on all the burned framing. Cleaned up like new with hardly any residue.
 

partssmann

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jun 1, 2013
771
Scottsdale, Arizona
You the man Dan, impressive cleaning tool.
 

donnymac

Defered Ajudication
Mark IV Lifetime
Sep 26, 2008
732
West Texas
I've thought about getting one of them to clean the calcium off my pool tile. I'd have to check if the CO2 going into the pool messes up the water - I think you get carbonic acid but I can't imagine it's a large enough quantity to matter.
That’s exactly what happens but Cacid also might favorably adjust your ph. WAG.

Had a friend use 15% Hcl acid thru an air brush to clean pool tile. Worked fine.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,189
Las Vegas, NV
That’s exactly what happens but Cacid also might favorably adjust your ph. WAG.

Had a friend use 15% Hcl acid thru an air brush to clean pool tile. Worked fine.

The tile is easy. Yes, I use a diluted muratic acid which just happens to be about 15%. The problem space is the grout - it wicks up the calcium so you have to be a little more aggressive. I use the acid and a tile grout "knife" which is like a metal sandpaper to rough the surface. Works, but takes a while to go all the way around the pool.
 

donnymac

Defered Ajudication
Mark IV Lifetime
Sep 26, 2008
732
West Texas
The tile is easy. Yes, I use a diluted muratic acid which just happens to be about 15%. The problem space is the grout - it wicks up the calcium so you have to be a little more aggressive. I use the acid and a tile grout "knife" which is like a metal sandpaper to rough the surface. Works, but takes a while to go all the way around the pool.
I get it. We use 15% hydrochloric to frac wells. Any rock, calcium or limestone basically dissolves from contact with Hcl…..all to say not sure about muratic acid horsepower vs Hcl. If you have access to 15% Hcl, you might experiment.

I’d be happy to provide you a sample should you want to experiment. it might be as simple as brush application using a tiny paint brush. One more WAG.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,189
Las Vegas, NV
Muriatic == HCl. Just a trade/packaging name. Typical pool store stuff is 31% stuff from Walmart and home depot 15%.
 
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donnymac

Defered Ajudication
Mark IV Lifetime
Sep 26, 2008
732
West Texas
Muriatic == HCl. Just a trade/packaging name. Typical pool store stuff is 31% stuff from Walmart and home depot 15%.
i owe you a beer.
 

MTV8

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 24, 2010
1,021
Houston Texas
I've thought about getting one of them to clean the calcium off my pool tile. I'd have to check if the CO2 going into the pool messes up the water - I think you get carbonic acid but I can't imagine it's a large enough quantity to matter.
I use a CO2 injection system to control pH in my pool. It needs to run full time with the pump in order to maintain stable levels, so you should see no changes using a dry ice system system just for cleaning.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,189
Las Vegas, NV
I use a CO2 injection system to control pH in my pool. It needs to run full time with the pump in order to maintain stable levels, so you should see no changes using a dry ice system system just for cleaning.
Is yours a salt pool? The chlorine generator needs the HCl to make the chlorine.
 

PeteK

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Apr 18, 2014
2,469
Kalama, Free part of WA State
I've thought about getting one of them to clean the calcium off my pool tile. I'd have to check if the CO2 going into the pool messes up the water - I think you get carbonic acid but I can't imagine it's a large enough quantity to matter.
It won’t make any difference to your pool chemistry. Dry ice will dissolve into the pool water, then quickly dissipate back to the atmosphere, just like a bottle of soda water goes flat if you don’t keep the cap on tight.
 

B.M.F.

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jan 29, 2009
1,810
Minnesota
Burnt engine I cleaned this weekend
 

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MTV8

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 24, 2010
1,021
Houston Texas
Is yours a salt pool? The chlorine generator needs the HCl to make the chlorine.
Mine uses chlorine but should be the same for any pool that needs acid to be added regularly.
 

MNJason

GT Owner
May 14, 2010
2,097
San Diego
Dan - this is really cool!