How to get rid of red clay staining on frame?

I live in Georgia and nearly every time I go off road my truck gets caked in red clay. I usually just hose it down and run a sprinkler on the undercarriage (I do not have access to a pressure washer). I realized today that there is a thin layer of clay dust/staining that makes my frame look orange. (Not my truck)

The attached image looks VERY similar to what my undercarriage looks like.
This is 100% not rust. Does anyone have any experience on how to get this crap off? Hoping to get it back to its original factory black appearance. Simple Green?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Looks like my undercarriage after I took backroads across Arizona and New Mexico to get to Texas one winter a few years ago.

D-limonene (orange oil) cuts dried clay very well. Get the highest concentrate you can if you can find a good price for it, and dilute it just a bit with water. I doubt you are going to get much of that clay off of your cats or the hotter end of your pipes though - that stuff is still baked on mine and after trying everything only a wire brush takes it off.

 

I will give that a shot! Thanks a bunch for the suggestion, even if I can just get it to look 50% better, I will be happy. Also worry that if I ever decide to sell, a frame looking like it had plowed through a bowl of spaghetti and marinara sauce wouldn't help valuation-wise.

 

Harbor freight sells a power washer for $80

 

That's much cheaper than I expected. Would you just hit it with water at a really high pressure or would I want to mix something else in? Thank you!

 

You could try just hitting it with water or spraying some simple green or degreaser on the frame first be careful not to hit the power washer too close to the frame though you don’t want to take the paint off also be mindful of seals for your diffs and transmission and transfer case as well
You can also hit the coin operated car wash as well if you don’t want to spend the 80 bucks

 

Power washer is worth a try but it didn’t do much on mine. If you do try orange oil, be sure to wear gloves, that stuff smells good but it gives blisters.

 

That shit is tough to get off of anything

 

Learned my lesson for sure. Avoiding orange puddles after this mess...

 

I'd try WD-40 on a rag maybe?

 

We drove a dirt/mud road in spring thaw in S.D. The soupy Bentonite mineral clay is still all over underside after several self serve car pressure washes, and some wire brushing any area I can reach.
As a hydrated aluminosilicate polymer it has super sticky properties used for drilling muds and slurry wall excavation.
Tough to wash out of my pants even.

 

I used to do paleontological work and we always cleaned fossils that were embedded in clay nodules with D-Limonene. It was the only way we could extract the fossils safely because it turns hardened rock-hard clay nodules into slurry.

 

What, no more ??

Ha, ha me too! The real fun starts when you have full armor skids and you run through silt filled puddles with them. One time I had mine so impacted by silty mud that it looked like a thick layer of brownies on baking pans. My plates were full all the way up to the bottom of the transmission and oil pan, and both the engine and tranny temps went way up. No power washing would help, I had to take the plates off and use a scraper to get that stuff off.

 

I live in north Georgia too. My advice; stay on concrete or learn to love the clay! That shit gets everywhere!

 

Hey, I'm not complaining as long as it doesn't slowly turn my frame into Swiss cheese!

 

FYI I have this pressure washer, it doesn't have enough pressure to clean bugs off unless they literally just splatted a few minutes ago. I gave up trying to use it for anything except getting that first loose layer of dirt off and rinsing soap off.

 

What others said. I don't know about Harbor Freight, but Home Depot sells the cheapest Ryobi electric low pressure washers. I bought one to foam cannon wash my personal 2023 Tacoma. Eventually, you can pressure wash around your house, whatever.

 

You got nothing to worry about down here, but it never hurts to hit that under carriage with a pressure washer after some mudding! Besides, by the time your frame is turning into Swiss cheese, some kid just starting elementary school this fall will be driving it.

 

The power washer at my local diy car wash place can’t get bugs off either I think if they make the psi too strong you lose your paint especially since Toyota paint is extremely soft and weak