Danbury Road bay, New Milford
Dry ice cleaning, for the parts that cannot be scrubbed
Original parts and undercarriages brought back to a like-new finish. For auction cars, enthusiasts and restoration projects.
Chapter 01
Grime on original parts, and why a brush is the wrong tool
The underside of a car collects everything: decades of road film, oil mist, undercoating that has aged and dirt packed into every bracket. On a car that is being kept original, that matters. You do not want to sand the finish off a suspension arm or soak a wiring harness, and you cannot scrub into the corners of a gearbox casing with a brush.
That is the situation dry ice cleaning was made for. Auction vehicles, enthusiast cars and restoration projects all share the same problem: the parts are worth keeping, and the dirt on them is stubborn.
Gearbox and exhaust on the underside of a car up on the lift, Danbury Road bay, New Milford
How dry ice blasting works
Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. In a blasting machine it is fed as small pellets into a stream of compressed air and fired at the surface. The pellets are extremely cold, which makes the grime brittle, and they hit hard enough to knock it loose. Then, instead of lodging in the part, they warm and turn straight from solid to gas.
That last step is the point. Sand, glass bead and soda blasting all leave their media behind, and water-based cleaning leaves moisture in places that are hard to dry. Dry ice leaves nothing to sweep up, no grit lodged in a bearing seat and no puddle in a connector. Only the removed dirt is left to clear away. It is also a gentler approach than abrasive blasting, which is why it suits original parts.
Whether a particular part is a good candidate is a question for the free consultation, with the car and the part in front of us.
Chapter 03
Who it is for, and how it fits with the rest of the detail
Performance Plus offers dry ice cleaning to restore dirty original parts back to a like-new finish. It is a great service for auction vehicles, where the underside is photographed and an honest, clean car sells better, for enthusiasts who want an original undercarriage to look as it did, and for restoration projects where the parts are being saved instead of replaced.
It sits easily next to the shop's other work. A clean underbody makes the rest of the car look right: an exterior detail with wheel wells and calipers cleaned, an interior steamed and conditioned, and for cars heading to a listing, auction management for Bring a Trailer, MB Market and PCar.
Start with the free in-person consultation at 458 Danbury Road, New Milford, Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:30pm. Call (203) 948-2194 and leave a voicemail if no one picks up, since the shop is hard to hear in, and the call will be returned.
Enthusiast owned and operated since 2006 · Free in-person consultation · 458 Danbury Road, Unit C-12, New Milford