Dry ice blasting-worth it?

[alfadoc]

I am preparing my '80 911 Weissach for sale. The underside looks fairly typical for a car with 90k miles on it. I'm planning to sell it on Bring a Trailer. To have the underside cleaned via dry ice blasting would probably run around $2000. Does anyone have any experience with this? Anyone have an opinion whether it would make any real difference in final sales number?

[rowingone]

$2000 is too much. Spray it with degreaser and use a scrub brush on the greasy parts then spray with a high pressure hose .. its only worth it if the rest of the car is pristine and commands a high dollar.

[AG81]

Will you get an extra $2000 out of the sale for it being spotless underneath.....that, to me, depends on the rest of the car.
With 90K on the clock I probably would not bother.

[skinnerd]

I will buck the trend here.
Definitely worth it in my opinion.
But you'll need really good pics of the underside to put on BaT.
When I'm looking at cars to buy, if I see a spotless (i.e. dry ice cleaning) undercarriage, it gives me more confidence that the rest of the car has been maintained as well.
Plus there is no hiding holes, rust or PO crazy stuff when it's super clean on the bottom side.

I would do it even if I weren't trying to sell a car.
It makes working on the suspension, brakes, engine and tranny more pleasant when they are not buried in a layer of oil and filth.

Below is a recent job I had done on my Lancia Delta.
The before and after pics really tell the tale.

[skinnerd]

Couple more pics from the Delta....

[mark4ton]

Definitely worth it! coming from someone who photographs cars for BaT

[wildthing]

I think there was an earlier thread on this. In my opinion, if you have a collectible, low mileage example, it's probably worth it, but drivers, high mileage examples, 1 of 20,000 similar cars, I'd go with standard steam cleaning.

[No Sweat]

After you will have to watch for any oil leaks or driving on wet dirty roads !!

[alfadoc]

Interesting takes on this topic. My car is 91k miles, all original paint and interior, so it has a pretty good dose of "patina", as in rock chips and seats that are far from pristine. But then, it is a Weissach, 1 of 204 in metallic black. Hmm.

[PeteKz]

Not worth it to me. I drive my cars, so they will just get dirty again.

[TastyReuben]

I'd go for it, I watch a fair amount of these auctions go through and can usually guess where they will land but sometimes the difference between a 50k car and a 60k car is a complete mystery. You'll be chasing a decently high # I'm sure so making an extra 2k is just a strangers mouse click away. All depends on you catching 2+ bidders attention on the day.

[2.7RS]

If you can't make it right make it shine!!!

Shiny blinds buyers, is like fireworks

Shiny sells, go for it

[rowingone]

It will be interesting to see how close to clean I can get on the underside of my 1972 911 (formerly leaky) with degreaser, scrub brush, and high pressure wash . . and if its worth $2k to do it myself.

[steven c]

I learned just a few months ago on my 81 SC to be more careful than I was with a pressure washer as the fender wells and engine compartment do not have clear coat over my moss green metallic paint and it removed paint in a few places down to the primer. Non metallic paints should do better but tread lightly! My original test area I did with a scrub brush and Dawn dish washing soap and that worked great. So I got the PW out to speed the job up.....

[Cairo94507]

I would try doing a section with Dawn, a soft brush and a home pressure washer. If that cleans up nicely, do the rest. $2K is a lot of money unless you are thinking the car will go for $100K plus. GLWTS.

[seafeye]

I got a quote for $3k. To do my 75. For what it’s worth.

[rcracin]

Those prices are pretty steep. I’m going to start calling around for quotes locally.

[skinnerd]

Dry ice cleaning is expensive due to:
1) the equipment is very expensive
2) it takes quite a bit of time to do the cleaning

It is much more friendly to the undercarriage than pressure washing for instance.

Definitely falls into you get what you pay for category.

[1973914]

When you do it, make.sure the person has experience with porsches and the different materials used. If they don't talk about different size ice, different pressures, different nozzles to treat each surface differently go somewhere else. I just had it done and was well worth it in my book.

[PeteKz]

Originally Posted by seafeye

I got a quote for $3k. To do my 75. For what it’s worth.

It's not.