Cleaning your Cleve ...

Degrease your ZF, then paint it. No more oxidized aluminum with a million tiny ares to clean. Best thing I ever did for my ZF
Will (hates cleaning)

Degreasing goes from Simple Green, to Gunk, to brake cleaners, carb cleaners and thinners. A little on a rag and some elbow grease and it will be clean. Use some metal polish to take of the stains - just get some music and a few beers and get comfortable. And don't rush it.

Then just touch up the paint as needed. You can also replace old nuts and bolts with stainless and / or polished acorn nuts, all readily available from our vendors or others.

As for polishing and buffing that's another story. It requires you disassemble the ZF so the casing can be brought to a pro with a big belt polisher. I figure it's serious $ to do that and will take a while. This will certainly slow down you're plans for getting back on the road.

Once it's cleaned as described above, you should think about what Will said. There are many posts here about the kinds of paints and finishes to use for a natural good look for the ZF that will last. See Mark Charlton's site and PM him. He's got a real nice looking ZF (see pics) that started out like yours. Mark is a perfectionist but not one to waste a lot of time.

Good luck and post more pics of your progress.

quote:

Originally posted by David B:
Degreasing goes from Simple Green, to Gunk, to brake cleaners, carb cleaners and thinners. A little on a rag and some elbow grease and it will be clean. Use some metal polish to take of the stains - just get some music and a few beers and get comfortable. And don't rush it.

yardwork or
clean the ZF

yardwork or
clean the ZF

yardwork or
clean the ZF

I can't decide. However cleaning the ZF has an advantage in that with that chore I can drink beer.

The downside is that I can't drive the car after cleaning the ZF because I drank beer.

...back to square one...

Thanks for the feedback, gents.

Funny, but different products seem to have different effects when detailing my powertrain. Simple Green worked great on the valve covers, but did nothing for the intake manifold or ZF. Break Cleaner was awesome on the manifold, but didn't do much for the ZF, which is still the least 'cleaned up' of the lot.

I think painting the ZF is a great idea; however, I am only a few weeks away from getting back on the road - so that will have to wait until another lonely winter rolls through. All in all, these are not 'performance enhancing' items ... so I'm not too concerned with the end result.

Does anyone know how the Pro's clean up the ZF? Whether it be a standard cleaning or the super polish job?
My ZF is in some need of cleaning.
George

My ZF is painted too. It's so easy to clean that I can't keep dirt on the damn thing - and I try

Billy
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