RGR

Member
I'm a newbee here and I"ve got myself a 48 8N I want to restore. It doesn't smoke learning how to start it with the choke and all that, been awhile for that, starts good, needs to be rewired, that's not a big problem, 2 small leaks, the governor and the pto, to much hydraulic fluid, lowered the amount but still leaks figure the damage has been done, new seal, what I want to know is what is the best way to clean her up, pressure wash or spray and clean by hand, it's not to bad, but it does have a few oil and grease build up through the ages, also wish that the people who owned it before would have used the proper wrenches on the bolts and nuts, open ends make a mess of all the heads and nothing seems to fit anymore,
Thanks
 

Welcome to YT, RGR. The generally accepted best method here at YT, is actually both of your choices: Dollar store no-name brand oven cleaner. You dilute it 50-50 then spray it on out of a spray bottle. Let it sit for awhile then spray again. Give it an hour to work, then spray it down with a pressure washer if you have one. Oven cleaner can cause red paint to lighten a little, but it is just plain grease eating, cheap work horse caustic, as opposed to regional brand AP cleaners with flashy names, with 1/4 the amount of caustic.
 
Cleaning largely depends on if you plan to paint or to just clean it to use. Some methods of cleaning are so aggressive they can remove the paint or at least cut the sheen. If you are going to just clean to use I would just use common car wash detergent and a power washer. Some stubborn places you might use purple power and a stiff brush. If you plan to paint you might start with the purple power and a power washer and see how that does. If you have access to a steam cleaner that would be good for stubborn places. Really caked on grease you might use oven cleaner. Sometimes you just have to chisel the gunk off. I painted a tractor that had grease and dirt so old and dry the previous paint job stuck to it. It was only using a chisel on it I managed to get the gunk off. A sandblaster is good to use on some of the parts you remove to paint. When it comes to paint there isn't anything better than to take it down to bare metal. You just have to be careful with sandblasting not to get sand into something it would hurt. It's also possible the problem you are having with the bolts is there is so much paint built up on the heads wrenches don't fit. I've had to sandblast the heads of bolts before to be able to remove bolts.
 

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