How Dry Ice Is Used To Deep Clean Cars _ Cars Insider

Uh , Scott Ailes with Dry Nation .

So today , I'd like to show you the step by step process that we go through in dry ice cleaning .

So there's a number of things that are unique about dry cleaning .

But number one , we're not using water .

So when we're done , we're not cleaning up water spots and we're not trying to dry things .

If you can see the dirt , we can clean it .

So there's a lot of places where you might be able to see that dirt , but you can't physically get to it with any tools or brushes or devices .

And you know , we can , we can clean that in the deep recesses of your car that you might not have been able to before .

It's like when the car rolled off the factory line , you've cleaned it back to that condition .

So what , what we're just getting started .

We're trying to identify the method of what we're gonna attack first .

When we put a car on the lift , we always wanna make sure and pull the wheels off so we can inspect the inner wheelhouse area .

We use a torque wrench to break the lug nuts loose .

We also like to consider , depending on the customer , if they want us to remove the inner wheelhouse liners , which are typically plastic to see if they want us to clean behind there .

So once we have the car in the lift and we're prepped , we're , we're then moving our attention toward the compressed air system to make sure that we've got all of our drying and cleaning systems for the air system in a and then we're gonna load the machine with the dry ice so that we're prepared to , to blast .

And so the first thing we try to do is get the wheels out of the way .

We have four wheels and we'll just take those one at a time .

You know , we'll look for tar , we'll look for adhesion , uh remnants from old wheel weights which are totally a pain to remove and we make that pretty easy .

Uh And then we just , we'll clean the wheels inside and out .

The three settings are , you've got pressure , which is P si that you're all familiar with .

There's pounds per minute and then you've got size of particle .

So those are the three things that you can adjust .

But for the first time , we can actually choose the size of the particle .

So it enables us to be able to do delicate things in the same area of things that might be aggressive .

Uh Previously , you were putting those delicate items at risk with a large particle size when we're starting the project , we're always looking for the dirtiest area .

First .

We like to get the hard stuff out of the way so that we get to those surfaces or those coatings that we're trying to remove that are easy .

Then it makes everything go smoother because you're not double cleaning .

So you'll notice as I'm cleaning that the gun is never static .

It's always moving , it's always constantly moving .

And the reason for that is we have the risk of a concentrated one oh nine negative degrees on a particular substrate or part of the car that you could damage in one spot .

So I'd like to take a minute and explain how this actually works .

There's really three things that are occurring .

You've got kinetic energy which is driven by the P si of the air system .

You've got cold temperature one oh nine degree negative that causes things to shrink .

So they lose adhesion .

And then you've got the actual thermal expansion of a solid chemical going to a gas .

So that's 800 times its original solid size .

Those three things work very well together to remove this dirt in a way that you probably never seen before .

There's a lot of technique opportunity here , right ?

Because in a sense , this is , this is a bit of a , an artist's effort at an industrial job .

If you will , I found it to be helpful for me to function in a circular pattern .

So that I never have any hard lines that the circular pattern gives me the control that I feel comfortable with .

There's really nothing that's more fun in this process than doing bare aluminum .

You really can't hurt , bear aluminum .

And so in that case , you can crank it up , it's more efficient .

You feel better about it and , and it's , it's very satisfying to the eye .

So once we've removed those really difficult grimy , uh , surfaces , uh , we , we do move into a combination of handwork and fine detail , dry ice cleaning .

People presume that what we're doing is a magic wand and we just wave at once and we're done and that's not true when we have surface rust .

Uh , we do integrate and uh a fair amount of hand work whether it be all purpose cleaners , white erasers , steel wool .

Uh , definitely , we , we do use hand work at the point in time that we , we believe we've finished with the underside , we'll bring the car down three or four ft and then we'll look at the top of the suspension in the wheelhouse areas and then we'll notice , ok , we got some more work to do here .

So once we clean the underside of the car , we bring the car down on the lift and we have an extra wide lift so that we can open the doors , get the floor mats out .

We can do the interior vents , the door jams the engine bay , the trim and and we don't abrade the service and we'll do what takes somebody two hours in 10 minutes .

So we were fortunate enough to receive this 55 Porsche speech and it literally is a barn fine .

What you're seeing here is me trying to see if I can remove this crazy thick mold .

That's 30 40 years old off 60 year old vinyl .

That mold was so thick , it would stop your fingernail .

This was a big moment for us and the end result is we will apply some all purpose cleaner at the end and we wipe off the final film from this panel , but it just turns out spectacular .

So we don't add to or remove any CO2 from the environment .

So we're neutral and we don't use water , which means that we don't rinse chemicals down a drain into any sewer systems or into drain fields .

So , from an environmental standpoint , by far , it is absolutely a better cleaning solution than using water and chemicals .

The driest cleaning world could be considered the highest level O CD crowd .

Think about the underside of a car and the intricacies of every component .

There's a lot of surface area to all of these parts and pieces .

Don't think that it's going to be easy .

But the satisfaction factor for those that care about the way their assets or their artifacts look is at the highest level .

So it's , it's worth the energy