Best way to remove dried dirt from inside the front frame

I have a bit of an issue. I was doing my under coat and I shined a light into one of the holes in the frame located in the front wheel well and saw a bunch of dried mud. Hopefully there is no rust but there is absolutely no room to get inside and clean it out.

I want to spray a coating on the inside but I don't want to have a ton of dried dirt when I do that. The photos show what I see when I look through the hole. I don't have any room to fit tools in and even if I did there is no way to remove the loose dirt. Dirt inside the frame is also an issue with one of the crossmembers too.

What is the best way to clean the inside of the frame?


Also who the hell thought putting holes big enough to let water and dirt in but too small to be used to clean the stuff out was a great idea? I could of told the engineer that this would happen.

//(a)

 

That’s a tough one. I took mine in for undercoating at 150 miles without seeing any rain or dirt.
pressure wash?

 

I was thinking about that but it would be hard get a good coverage because the hole is so small and there is no where for the water/mud to go from what I am seeing. The mud would just re-dry because there is no way to remove it.

 

Water hose and nozzle
Long flexible but stiff wire
Long brushes
Shop wet-dry vacuum and nozzles

You need to flood the area to dissolve the dirt and stir it up with brushes and wire to dislodge it. Then suck it out with the vacuum. You may have to McGyver the nozzles you need. It may take many applications to get only clean water out.

PS: I’ve heard of people drilling drainage holes. But that sounds like too much work.

 

First step, run a sprinkler underneath, leave it going overnight if you can; that should help get rid of a good portion of it, or at least soften it up. Next, pressure wash underneath the best you can. Finally, good luck... mud, 5 seconds of fun, a lifetime of headache.

 

The car looks very clean underneath. If you did a cursory glance it would look pristine. It has an undercoat (there is a clean frame under it), and I have painted 90% of it with fluid film. Its just in this cross bar and one other one where the mud has remained on the inside. I have checked everywhere else and it seems fine.

If I could get in and be sure there was no rust I would plug the hole, there is no reason to put a hole in the frame big enough for water and dirt to get into while making the hole too small to clean out the cavity. How have more people not run into this, it seems like an issue that would be easily discovered by anyone who tried to take it through mud or water. I might remove the skid plates this weekend to see what the deal is maybe there is a drain hole that is covered up.

That hole in the pictures is the only way I know of as of now to access this cavity, I cant effectively clean it out because its too small. I would add water right now if I knew I could dry everything afterwards but right now its too easy to miss something. Its like trying to clean out a bed room while only getting access through the key hole in the door.

My game plan if it turns out this is my only access point is to take a long stake and dislodge whatever I can. Then I will somehow fill it with water and plug the holes overnight while everything dissolves. Then take a large tube and siphon off the water. Dry then spray an undercoat on the inside. If there is still a ton then maybe I'll get a shop vac. In the end I'll get an access port made either by rust or my own initiative.

 

Less than 2 days after I had my 2019, I went out and buried it up to the frame rails in soft sticky mud. It was a lot of fun, and four low with traction control turned off got me out without a tug. I then had the same problem that you do, so I pressure washed it multiple times over the next several days, and would shove the end of the nozzle into the hole and just let it run until it started to back out. took me well over a month to finally get the entire underside and all the little nooks and crannies free of mud. Living in Southwest New Mexico where it is dry and we rarely see rain now made it in even more of a challenge. When I finally had the opportunity to put on my skid plate, I was able to shove a thin metal rod into two of the holes and bust up the dirt clogs that were there. I then repeated the pressure washing, and it finally is all clean.

 

Did the water drain out of the cavity on its own or did you have to siphon it out

 

Clear hose zip tied to a barb.

 

The water filled the hole, and it backed out the dirty water. One of the reasons I had to keep repeating it was to get it to break down. The metal rod I used was actually one of those telescoping mirrors, that's built like on an antenna body. I taped up a piece of cardboard over the actual mirror part to use as a handle and extended it up into the hole. altogether it took probably well over 4 to 6 weeks to actually get the entire thing cleaned out. I live in a very dry climate, so once the mud had solidified, it was a real pain in the butt to get out.

 

I haven't dropped the skid plates yet but does anyone have a detailed diagram of the frame? I have dropped skid plates before and putting them back on was difficult and dirty work and I don't want to do it again unless I have to