Best soap to strip all coatings?

[Jon K]

Hey guys - any recommended soap to use in order to bring a car down without any coatings?

[Rake]

CG Citrus wash and gloss

Dawn

I hear those are pretty popular for stripping.

[Regency]

Dawn is my preference.

[Rmd]

CG Citrus Wash red.

[craz0boy]

Dawn

[wdmaccord]

Is CG Citrus Wash Red effective at stripping in a foamaster? If so, how long do you let it dwell? Then do you wipe down the foam with a mitt with a grit guard rinse between panels?

[Rmd]

I've used the CG red in my foam master. I sprayed the car, let it dwell for about 5 min, then rinsed off. Then I foamed it again and 2bm washed, cleaning the mitt in clean bucket with grit guard. I don't bother with a bucket of soap solution because I spray out more soap solution from the foam master on each panel as i go along. I get a ton of suds out of a couple of ounces of Red in the foam master; enough to soap it once, rinse it, soap it again, and keep wetting it with more soap as I proceed with the mitt. Works well for me when I want to take off lsp and play with new wax or sealant.
I don't really have the option of letting it dwell much more than 5 min or so without it starting to dry because its almost always warm and dry weather here in SoCal.

[swanicyouth]

I don't think there is a soap that can strip coatings. Some have to be polished off (OptiCoat). What good would a coating be that can be removed with a soap? You can't always remove all sealants with a soap.

[Rake]

I don't think there is a soap that can strip coatings. Some have to be polished off (OptiCoat). What good would a coating be that can be removed with a soap? You can't always remove all sealants with a soap.

Lol, I just finished reading your thread comparing sealant durability.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews/60946-sealant-test-powerlock-blackhole-wolfgang-dgps-blackfire-wd.html

I guess your answer should be Meg's Hot Rims Chrome Wheel Cleaner...looks like that'll do it,lol.

Thanks for that comparison btw. I know it wasn't super scientific, but still, good job! I learned something from that thread.

[Lost Highway]

I don't think there is a soap that can strip coatings. Some have to be polished off (OptiCoat). What good would a coating be that can be removed with a soap? You can't always remove all sealants with a soap.

+1 to swanicyouth's comments. Even to strip durable waxes or sealants strong shampoo mixes generally won't get it done, popular misconceptions and marketing claims not withstanding. Most of the new coatings, once cured, have to be mechanically polished (abraded) off although a few have proven weak against some stronger alkaline cleaners.

There are a host of new cleaners that have recently appeared on the market as prep for coatings because they demand such surgically clean surfaces: Gtechniq Panel Wipe, Duragloss Squeaky Clean, Orchard Auto Care Luminos, Optimum has one in development, etc. It should be noted, however, that these are only designed to remove polish residue, waxes and sealants to prep the surface NOT to remove the coatings themselves. There are also older "bigger hammer" cleaners like deodorized mineral spirits, ValuGard New Car Prep, DuPont Spies-Heckler 7010 Permaloid, etc. which should remove waxes and sealants.

[PiPUK]

And another one to that sentiment - neutral and moderate pH surfactant products won't strip and half decent LSP. I have argued the science of this elsewhere. In summary, surfactants are sticky and leave residues, some more than others. Any of the surfactant products which I have tried which claim to strip do nothing more than coat the LSP with a hydrophillic surfactant layer which hides the beading/sheeting. This finish is unsuitable for subsequent application of LSPs (they will be compromised badly). This can often be demonstrated by repeated rinsing and or even an IPA wipe - the beading will return.

Stripping requires a significant level of alkalinity and/or solvents (particularly non-polar solvents with high solvency, e.g. mineral spirits and stronger). If you manage to do it with less, best contact your LSP manufacturer and ask why their product is so fragile!

[ski2]

PiPUK--Does this include products like CG Citrus Wash that are claimed by the manufacturer to remove previous wax/sealants?

[jimjc]

And another one to that sentiment - neutral and moderate pH surfactant products won't strip and half decent LSP. I have argued the science of this elsewhere. In summary, surfactants are sticky and leave residues, some more than others. Any of the surfactant products which I have tried which claim to strip do nothing more than coat the LSP with a hydrophillic surfactant layer which hides the beading/sheeting. This finish is unsuitable for subsequent application of LSPs (they will be compromised badly). This can often be demonstrated by repeated rinsing and or even an IPA wipe - the beading will return.

Stripping requires a significant level of alkalinity and/or solvents (particularly non-polar solvents with high solvency, e.g. mineral spirits and stronger). If you manage to do it with less, best contact your LSP manufacturer and ask why their product is so fragile!

If you what you say is true and I have no reason to believe it isn`t, then why do we have so many people that say most all of the waxes/sealants one can buy don`t last very long? 2 to 6 or 8 weeks except for some of the new paint coatings which last longer.

Based on your theory they should last a very long time in the light that practically nothing will remove them, outside of polishing them off.

[KBsToy]

CG Citrus wash and gloss

Dawn

I hear those are pretty popular for stripping.

I just did my wifes van with CG. Followed directions on bottle and it worked fine. There was not alot of LSP on van. The only thing the van got after wash was Lucas spray wax when drying.

[theblob640]

For those that recommend Dawn to strip your car, is there a reason why you choose Dawn instead of other dishwashing liquids? Seems like everyone who uses a dishwashing liquid uses Dawn. I use Palmolive and was wondering if that is fine too?