Use household cleaning items on your car?

I have read several articles that use household cleaning items on cars i.e. CLR to remove oxidized paint, toothpaste as a light rubbing compound, 409 cleanser for upholstery, etc. As some items I use from the auto parts store don’t seem to work as well as I had hoped and some of these seem to work better (at a lower cost), it seems I should be doing some of my shopping at the grocery store. What do you use from the little women’s ****nal of home cleaning supplies, for light duty work, that performs better on cars than the stuff you get from the your local auto parts store?

 

Well, to remove oxidized paint I've always used rubbing compound. The cost of toothpaste or CLR vs. rubbing compound is a no-brainer. It's not caustic nor does it contain fluoride and it's made for paint.

The 409 works well on lots of stuff though. Just test any product on a small area before trying it all over.

Oh yeah, I ain't gots no little woman so it's up to me to the cleaning. Lucky me....

 

Spray-nine on the tires.
Ever scrub the hell out of em and the water is clear, but after drying the tires still look brown?
Spray some of this on them, let set a few seconds then hose off gently. Water coming off the rubber will be dark brown almost black.
Also with a little scrubbing this way works good to remove the blue **** off your skinny whites.
Great for a hands-off way of cleaning your wheel wells, especially for newer cars with plastic ones.

 

CLR is some strong stuff. I wouldn't use it on paint that i care a lot about. I have used it to descale a radiator; it'll remove, well, calcium lime and rust. I caught it in a bucket after I poured it through; that ****'s expensive.

 

When we brought home the comet earlier this summer the door panels were covered in grease and dirt, we scrubbed with a sponge and cleaner for a while and when the sponges fell apart we had a Mr. Clean magic eraser the girl had picked up and wow that thing worked wonders for cleaning the interior. I went over every inch I had already scrubbed and it was like new. Worked great on the vinyl, dash and all the knobs.

 

Make my own windex with a few drops dawn, a little ammonia, and filtered water. In fact, dawn dish detergent should be the all-purpose soap in any garage.

Careful with the 409, when cleaning walls I've had it permanently discolor white paint, and permanently fade colored items. Great for countertops, but not going anywhere near my garage.

For the good of my garage and cars, had to stop buying SOS pads for the house, those things are tempting and dangerous.

 

"Simple Green" and a medium bristle brush on vinyl. I've never found anything better.

 

Oven cleaner is a good degreaser. It contains LYE,so it will remove paint,and etch aluminum also.. be careful. don't breathe the fumes or get it on your skin or hair.. it will desolve both... but it does a heckava job on old junkyard parts before you bring em home. Spray on, wait a few, then high pressure hose it off..

 

A Swiffer cloth works good for getting dust of your dash.

 

The white interior in my olds had obviously gotten kinda grimey and slightly brown over it's 40 years of existance. I used some Scrubbing Bubbles bleach stuff, usually for bathtubs and sinks, etc. It cleaned the door panels up REALLY well and definately brightened them up.

 

I've used those magic erasers a few times, those things are great. clean the inside better than anything else I've tried

 

i use off brand blue "gl*** cleaner" on suede paint as a cleaner and it leaves a nice, streak free look.

also use oven cleaner as a rust remover.

-scott noteboom

 

Comet toilet cleaner in the dry form, with a medium plastic bristle brush works great on the farm fresh cars, or beater drivers with all the funk in the drip rails, along trim and jambs, wet the car apply to the area that are growing, scrub hard, hose it off and you will see a layer of the oxidation goes with it, the stainless shines up too. And for some reason, maybe bleach? the mossy **** doesnt come back.

 

CLR is good for cleaning oxidized paint but dilute it well and test a spot for a few minutes first. i'd post some pics of results i've had but it's on one of those hated german air cooled *******s.

Bartenders Helper/Comet and all of those work pretty well for oxidation to. wet the area scrub with a little of any of the above and then hit it with a good cleaner wax and it'll look better than you would think. not as good as if you actually buffed it out but pretty good and lots quicker.

Whestley Bleachwite diluted is really good for cleaning white interior but dilute it and test a spot before going at it. had a buddy clean a mildew covered white interior to bright *** white again in a coupla hours...ken....

 

Don't wash a nice shiney paint job with it unless you are ready to wax right away. Wax protrects your paint, Dawn strips it all off and leaves the paint bare...

 

I once borrowed the toilet brush to clean a front suspension, using Purple Stuff. Jeez, you'd have thought I shot the pope or something.
"Well damn, honey, I don't know what you're so upset about. Look what YOU'RE cleaning with it!"
Here's a tip from your ol' Uncle Brad; if you get caught using a toilet brush, a kitchen scrub brush, or the dishwasher to clean car parts, "no dear," "yes dear" and "I don't know what I was thinking...you're right" are the only acceptable answers to any question she will ask for the next 5-7 minutes, and any future questions regarding the subject. Anything else will just make matters worse.

And yes, "Dawn" dishwashing soap DOES take grease out of your way.
I also use SOS pads a lot in the shop. The soap on them acts as a lubricant while you're cleaning stuff. I've used it on old metal signs and tool boxes, stainless trim, garage sale tools, white walls, etc. Use it delicately. It's a ham-fisted appraoch to some cleaning solutions, but I always keep a box in the shop. Also works great to clean really dirty hands.

-Brad

 

Don't you mean HAMB-fisted?

 

After you finally get your WWW clean and dry, protect them with Futura household wax. Actually if you keep applying several coats it will keep your tires looking clean and shiney for along time.

 

Simple green is a great degreaser for general use around the shop.

I use Soft Scrub with bleach to clean my white vinyl upholstery, and it does a great job! It's co**** so it'll really scrub out the deep down grease.

Noxon is an awesome metal polish and will take mild rust and oxidation off of chrome. This really brightens up old bumpers and hubcaps. I even use it on my guitars

 

A great cleaner for interior vinyl is,Murphy's oil soap and water.Old fashioned product leaves things clean but not glossy.Very cheap,available at the grocery store,contains no silicone.

 

Vinigar and water make a nice Windex. I've also heard to use that in conjunction with newspaper to get really clean windows, but I can't confirm the paper thing first hand.

 

Steel wool and some dish soap cleans white walls really well.

 

Newspaper used to be part of this trick,till they switched to water soluble inks.

 

Spray Nine really does work better then Purple Power and white bleach whatever. Careful on those rattle canned wheels; Spray Nine will take the paint off.

Pepsi for pitch stains from trees with a really wet towel. Don't let the Pepsi dry on your paint.

 

Appleseed,

Vinegar is a good rust remover for small parts. Place the parts in a jar cover with vinegar and leave them over night.

Cruiser

 

So do SOS pads.

 

The old man taught me how to sneak engine parts into the dishwasher before ***embly. We only got caught once. Not quite a pope shooting, but at least a cardinal stabbing.

 

PLEASE guys....don't give him more ideas!!!

I better go start taking inventory, NOW.

Word to the wives....I've stopped *****ing about it. Now when I pick up cleaning items at the store, I just go ahead and get two. One for the house and one for the shop. The hot items here are paper towels, sink scrubbies, Windex and sissors.

 

Not a cleaning use, but copper 'chore boys" pads make good air cleaner,and oil breather stuffing.

 

If you have tape or sticker glue goo on your gl***, Germ-X will take it right off. It will clean the gl*** without streaking, too.

A 50/50 mix of bleach and water will clean the mold off of white vinyl tops. Use Simple Green to clean white canvas tops, though.