Underbody cleaning

When you’re back from your trip, you’ll want to tackle the cleaning as quick as possible so that the salt and sand have minimal time to spend on your paint. We're starting with the underbody here so we don't have to be lying around on wet ground from the later steps.

One of the most important and overlooked cleaning steps is flushing out your chassis rails to remove any trapped sand and prevent wet spots that promote and accelerate corrosion. We've all tried the sprinkler trick, and this doesn't get the sand out of the rails and is not effective in our testing. We recommend using a hose with the connector taken off the end so you have a steady and even stream of water.

Starting on either side chassis rails, find the furthest back hole and push the hose end through as far as it will go. Observe as the sand begins to flow out from the drain holes down the rails. Wait until this flow becomes clear water and then adjust the hose pulling it in and out until no more sand comes out. Then repeat the process on the other side.

With the inner rails done, we’ll move on to the rest of the underbody. Grab your snow blow cannon and add 900mL of water and 100mL of Dirty Times Wash. Shake thoroughly then fully coat every surface of the underbody, adjusting your nozzle spread to reach different areas and paying extra attention to any chunky sand build up.

Find a hole in the chassis rail that you can point the cannon at on an angle and fill the rails up.

Dirty Times Wash is ideal to use in place of snow foams here because it will dissolve salt, break down the minerals and leave a corrosion barrier thanks to its anti rust additives that will help minimise and prevent rust. Set aside the leftover Dirty Times Wash mixture and allow it to sit for a few minutes before rinsing off.

Use a hose sprayer on the jet setting to blast through the rails and flood the areas with a large amount of water to remove sitting suds and sand being thorough in every potential location that sand could be built up or hiding. You can also use the pressure washer for this, but we find the volume of water is more important than pressure here.

For any grease or oil left after snowing, we’ll use the deep cleaning power of Down & Dirty which easily lifts heavier grime when paired with some of our brushes.

Prepare a wheels bucket with a cap of Dirty Times Wash to rinse your brushes in as you go. Use The Chubby for flat open surfaces and the Foursome Brushes for more intricate areas.

When you’re all done, rinse the underbody down completely and prepare your cannon with the leftover wash from before as we move on to the engine bay.