I know what you're thinking.........hose it off, stupid. But I'm talking about years and years of Eastern US clay/mud.......caked on and so hard even a pressure washer won't touch it. My AF M37 came from Virginia and was a "farm truck". I can see all the original Strata blue under the truck, but there's tons of mud on everything that's more like concrete than mud. I've been toying with the idea of trying to save the original paint, but after a few of the more "standard" ways of trying to remove this crap I'm at my wit's end. I actually did try the powerwasher as a last resort and it would take forever at the highest pressure to get the old mud off......and probably most of the original paint as well. Nothing penetrates this stuff. I've tried diesel, gasoline, and a whole host of cleaning products and concoctions. So I'm wondering if there's anybody out there more redneck than me that has one of those "home recipes" for dealing with this stuff. Short of sand blasting I'm drawing a blank (and it's pissing me off).
Have you considered a 'wet blasting' attachment for your power washer? You might be able to play with the washer output pressure to draw sand and just take off the dirt, rather than everything. I have one I bought years ago, and only used on really dirty greasy stuff. The last month, I have been working on my tractor and so far, its got off stuff that has been stuck on for many years. The other choices are pretty labour intensive or expensive like soda blasting. Let us know what you decide and how it works.
I know it sounds odd, but I used Simonize Rubbing Compound on mine, because I wanted to save the paint.
It worked fine, just took a long time.
I also have an 52 AF version with original blue where the previous guys didn't paint over.
A buddy suggested Wet Sanding the Doors to try to find any markings.
I'd like to try that to see what's there. Do you have any ?
Do you also have the oval read window ???
Was that an AF thing ???
Bob,
This may not be possible, but low humidity worked on our truck. After sitting in the shop long enough the mud dried and shrank a bit. This led to cracks and I was able to break it off in giant pieces. Dirty nasty work, but that's what did it. I'm sure we removed hundreds of pounds of mud. It's only recently that you can wash the underside of the truck and it doesn't leave a giant ring of adobe.
I tried a pressure washer and the mud just laughed at me!
My AF M37 doesn't have a hardtop........mine's a soft top. I don't know the ratio of hardtops to soft tops for the AF, but I think they preferred the hard top. If anyone can shed light on this I'm all ears. But I'm under the impression that all M37 hard tops had a rectangular rear window. I believe the oval rear window signifies a hardtop supplied with another truck........but I don't recall which.
As for the markings on the door.....no, I haven't looked. I'm tempted to, but I'll only get one shot at it so I want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I give it a try. I've done some research on how the AF marked their vehicles and my door number was on my build card from Chrysler........so I know what it SHOULD be marked if the door numbers are still there.
Andy,
Yes, I've taken chunks of this concrete mud off, but it's brutal doing it with a screwdriver lying on my back in the driveway. When I tried the powerwasher it just made one heck of a mess. I've never seen anything stand up to my power washer with the tightest stream (highest pressure)............but this mud did. I haven't tried to remove any more mud since last summer, so maybe I'll climb back under there this weekend and see what's what.
Bob:
You might try driving it into the nearest creek or lake and let it soak for a year or two. It would also make
a neat "hiddey-hole" for large mouth bass.
Needle scaler or hammer and chisel are you only other options. Wear a quality mask if you think the paint
is lead based.
My friend tried that with his 5 ton. He's probably draining the water out of his engine right now.
Seriously, I've looked into what the well diggers use to soften up the clay they have to bore thru and they use an acid. That would also destroy the original paint I'm trying to protect. So it doesn't appear there is any "easy" way to remove all this old hard mud. It appears good ol' fashioned elbow grease combined with a few tools is the only way to go.
Bob,
I've found that the tools made to remove sticky wheel weights work well. They are basically a reinforced nylon scraper and they're pretty tough, but don't scratch the underlying painted surface. I think I purchased mine from the MAC guy.
Andy
ps. I haven't heard from you on the water vapor thingy, are you still interested?
Rehydrate it seems like the good answer to me. Put a lawn sprinkler under it for a few hours, or soak with a garden hose on 20 min intervals. Put back what was taken away to make it as hard as it is now. It's gonna take a good soak but you can do it in a Saturday. When the ground is real dry and a fast but heavy storm comes through the ground doesn't take much moisture, but those days when you get a nice light rain for 8-10 hrs the ground softens up and accepts moisture.
Home 
