Some background on the car.  This is a 2004 Volvo S60 and it belongs to my sister who has owned it since new.  She lives on horse farm and the car has been parked outdoors its entire life and as far as I can tell, it hasn’t had more than one thorough cleaning during the last 16 years.  My aim here is to clean up the car and get it looking as good as possible.  It’s not going to look like new because there is some severe corrosion and other flaws and I’m not a miracle worker.  But it’s going to look far better than it has since it was new.

Part 1, Engine cleaning

Isn’t that a sight?

Every little crevice and gap was just full of dirt and pine needles, including some vital drain holes.  I’ve never had to vacuum an engine before cleaning it!

And here we are all cleaned up.  It’s not perfect, there’s some light corrosion in spots and I had to pull off the under hood insulation as there had been animals living in it.

Some of the bodywork under the hood seemed to be coated with a cosmoline type rust protection so I just left it in place.  I sprayed some rust inhibitor on some of the rusty bits to prevent further damage.  Not going for a show car level cleaning here. Just getting things tidy.

Watch for further installments on this project.  I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me.

Thanks