Howdy all. Nice place.

[daca1001]

Has anyone ever washed their cars using a gallon of warm water with a cup of kerosone? Back in the day growing up, dad use to wash the car, orange Ford Pinto this way. I remember it would make the car shine. He would do this right before he would wax the car with simonize (talke about a chore...lol).

Would this work on today's cars with clear coats. My thought is it would eliminate a step in the detailing process (removing the old wax). I'm just not sure what it would do to the clear coat.

Any thoughts or comments is truly appreciated.

[killrwheels@autogeek]

I dont feel that kerosone has a need in car care. While the high solvent will strip waxes, it could also degrade clearcoat over time as being quite harsh. Even some commercial wax removers like Prepsol, and Acrysol warn not to use frequently.

[daca1001]

I didn't know that waterless car washes use kerosene

The Product: Instead of just copying the other “existing products”, we changed the characteristics a little bit. We replaced the kerosene, which is used in most waterless car washes, with water and alcohol, as its main ingredient. This eliminated the need to mask the harsh smell of kerosene with perfumes. We created a product that was truly "water-based". We added the finest, Brazilian carnauba wax, pumas and a secret, proprietary emulsion compound to tie it all together. The result was truly amazing. The final product was light, easy to use, smelled great and performed "as good" or better than the other products we had used as a guide.
Through continuous improvement, we have made our waterless car wash product even better, safer, and more versatile than anything else on the market! Our latest product settles less, cleans glass with zero streaking and cleans black plastic without leaving any white residue behind. The incredible, velvety smooth shine it produces does not squeak or leave swirls. It still removes water spots and oxidation from older paint like it always has.

Here is the link
About Freedom Waterless Car Wash - America's Waterless Car Wash


It also is used to clean the engine compartment

For at-home cleaning a pressure washer may help but isn't necessarily needed, a hose will do just fine. If you can't find a heavyduty degreaser, use kerosene mixed 50/50 with water as a degreaser. With the engine warm(not hot!) apply the kerosene mix to stubborn grease deposits before you wet it down - water will dilute the mix and reduce the cleaning strength. Use a pointy brush to get any stubborn deposits off the valve covers, etc... You may want to repeat this step a couple times. Let me add that this kerosene mix can also be used to degrease door jambs, as well as a pre-soak for tar & bug removal. Nothing like high speed bug splatter on the front end of that mustang! If you get some degreaser on the paint, rinse immediately.

Here is the link
Auto Detailing

Now I'm not advocating the use of the stuff. I just find it interesting that it is used and the only reason I bring it up is because of my experience as a child.

Oh and thanks for the response.

[killrwheels@autogeek]

I remember when brake fluid was used to dress tires, well until they found out it damaged rubber quite quickly. Talk about gloss !