Sweet baby Jesus, I will never drive though mud again

Went to Wooly's in TN. I played follow the leader behind a guy who takes his old Dakota there all the time. I'd watch him drive up a hill carefully avoiding deeper ruts, rocks etc. Then I'd go up slowly, get impatient and haul ass up to the top. First time I've had it off road and it kicks ass. He was really impressed with how easily it handled the terrain. Went over a small jump designed for bikes and quads. Didn't have enough room to get much speed but we did get the front end up in the air and came down Dukes of Hazzard style.

Then we came across a muddy pit. Both went through, no problems. Then we went back and through again. And again. And again. By the time I was done there was no more water left. The pond in the pic was another one I played in.

Then we went home. I should preface the rest by saying that before it went off road, it was probably the cleanest Raptor in the US. I detail all my vehicles to a concours level twice annually and keep them very clean in between.

Holy shit. It took me all day just to get the visible mud out. My driveway has a solid inch of mud on it now and I still can't get it out of all the crevices in the undercarriage and engine bay. Sooo many hiding spots for it. I finally just used dirty towels to clean off the body. I'm going to have to compound out the deep scratches from all the tree branches anyway. Dozens. I even have them along the roof!

How the the hell do people get all the mud out??? I'll have the body looking pristine again but I'll never, ever get the hidden spots clean and I'm sure it will leave mud behind on rainy days forever. I need to find someone who specializes in cleaning this crap up, because it is definitely not worth 3 days of my time (3 kids made the interior look like the exterior, that alone will take me a day). Oh well, off to start clay barring the sides before I pull out the DA polisher.

Five minutes of fun in the mud = six to eight hours of cleanup.

^this is why I've only ever gone mudding once. Legit mudding is are for pieces of shit that people have as their toys. Most definitely not for daily drivers. Unless you're a redneck I suppose.

I'm no redneck but I daily drive my raptor for work and half of the miles I drive each day are offroad. When it rains I get bummed out bc I know it's gonna take me hours to clean it up lol. Then I just have fun bc I can't do much about it. I would rather not mud but it's not that big a deal. Feels good to get it all cleaned up.


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Sprinkler mod.

So you broke your mud cherry!!! Happened to me last year at TRR. Only advice I ca give is to take the bed side caps off. Those will drain muddy little trails down the bedsides every time you wash it. Goes for the rubber around the windows, fuel cap, fender vents, etc.

Do what i did - get a creeper out and a pressure washer. Get underneath dressed in a rain coat and just giver 'er hell!!!

It'll fall out and off over time......

2014RubyRed said:

So you broke your mud cherry!!! Happened to me last year at TRR. Only advice I ca give is to take the bed side caps off. Those will drain muddy little trails down the bedsides every time you wash it. Goes for the rubber around the windows, fuel cap, fender vents, etc.

Do what i did - get a creeper out and a pressure washer. Get underneath dressed in a rain coat and just giver 'er hell!!!

It'll fall out and off over time......

Click to expand...

I noticed that about the bed caps. It was really pissing me off every time I'd go back and see little specks of dirt.

How do I get them off? It's not simple little screws.

Get a pressure washer and an underbody lance, then keep spraying until you get most of it off. Repeat at next wash, and after a few washes most of the mud will be gone.

http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f36/first-detail-adamized-raptor-33281/index7.html#post771093

-Dan

1fastdoc said:

I noticed that about the bed caps. It was really pissing me off every time I'd go back and see little specks of dirt.

How do I get them off? It's not simple little screws.

Click to expand...

Go underneath the bed side caps. They just snap in to the metal with molded-in clips. I used a pair of pliers to 'coax' them out as they will break if you're not careful. There's quite a few of them, too. Having someone help hold a little pressure up on the cap while you push the 'clips' up from the bottom works really good.

Another thing you may want to do is pull the tail lights and headlights out. They are great areas to hide mud/dirt and the connections should be checked then, too. I do that every so often anyway, so I'm getting pretty good at it!

After the N/C run I took all the skid plates off. pulled the headlights, running
boards, did the car wash a few times, ultimately got the pressure washer out and did the lay on a creeper and blast it. seems the transmission on my truck took most of the mud. took awhile to clean it. probably spent a hour under there. I also sprayed bleche white with a pressureized sprayer, that really took the mud stains off. but with the running boards off was able to do a much better job.