Anyone done Dry-Ice cleaning?

An update since I just had this done this past weekend. I'm in the Seattle area, used a local smaller independent called Affordable Dry Ice Blasting that was indeed quite a bit more affordable (by about 50%) than some of the bigger outfits in the area. As detailed in another thread I have pulled my transmission for 5-speed swap and had decided to pull the engine to paint the engine bay, so it seemed like a perfect time to have all of this done. The underside of the car was completely caked in black grime that was very difficult for me to remove with degreaser and a brush. The result that the dry ice did is far superior to what I could have done, and for around $2k including underside, wheel wells and engine bay this isn't cheap but definitely one of those circumstances where the result for the amount of time it would have taken me definitely works out. It's a pretty impressive result and as mentioned above it's safe for work around hoses, undercoating, paint etc.
Here are some pre-photos
 

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And some engine bay firewall pre-post
 

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Oh yeah, that tickles my brain in a good way. I will most definitely be reaching out to him when I get my car back on this side of the mountains. Thanks for posting the before and after pics!
 
We routinely use dry ice cleaning on optics in our cleanrooms; properly applied, it has no effect on critical optical surfaces or lens coatings.

I can see how it could be utilized on cars... the underbody photos are quite interesting.. our optical surfaces are very small compared to the amount of area you're cleaning in a car underbody.
 
Great results. Are you going to spray the underside? "while you are in there" did you already get one of these from Don or CoupeKing? No better time. Mine cracked and I have only original CS engine HP.

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I am going to spray the underside. What part is that there? Can’t say I’ve spent enough time under there yet to know what’s what…
 
Got it. I’ll take a look - will admit that I have been focusing all of my attention on transmission and forward. There has not been anything that I’ve done to the rear of the car except for trunk refresh and moving battery to the trunk. But good tip!
 
@e9Leveque I am following your effort with great interest. What are the next steps after dry ice, if one were to want to repaint the engine compartment and the bottom of the car? Scuff, primer, and paint? Or do you still have to sand blast and such?

Thank you.
 
CamayroZ said:
@e9Leveque I am following your effort with great interest. What are the next steps after dry ice, if one were to want to repaint the engine compartment and the bottom of the car? Scuff, primer, and paint? Or do you still have to sand blast and such?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
I posted some pictures in the “what did you do to your E9 today” thread. I don’t think sandblasting would provide much additional benefit. I prepped the engine bay with some metal wash, did some sanding and then rustproofed with RustBullet then 2 coats primer, 3 coats topcoat and 3 coats clear coat. Did it this weekend after spending the last week getting the whole car taped up. Looks quite good - not perfect but WAY better than before.
For the bitumen I primed it separately then put it on between coats 1 and 2 of the topcoat so if anyone ever pulls it up it’s not just primer underneath.
For the underside I’ll likely spray some Wirth stone guard which I found in gray and then paint the cas tank and wheel well in a darker gray (one of the Seymour high solids paint so it has a bit of thickness and durability to it).
I used an hvlp gun rather than rattle cans, I think that it made the job feel more even but I’m sure rattle cans could work. It would have been a LOT of cans though, especially once I added in the hood underside and the wheel wells
 
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