Gorilla boogers

[Pilgrim]

For over a year now I have used one those handy-dandy Mister Clean spray carwashers that you buy for $25 at AutoZone or NAPA and then spend infinitely more during a lifetime of buying soap and spot-free rinse cartidges. But it works pretty well, so I use it.

 

A couple weeks ago I ran out of the soap and didn't feel like running down to AutoZone so I just dumped some Mother's carwash soap into the empty tank. It did okay; not great, but okay.

 

Then, t'other day, I bought some of the right soap and dumped it in on top of a half tank of the Mother's and washed and rinsed and let it dry.

 

And I found that the bike was covered with gorilla boogers, I guess it was. It was sticky clumps, nasty sticky clumps all over. On paint. On chrome. On rubber. On aluminum. On the windshield. Less on the seat, but still some. Everywhere! And they wouldn't rub off, not a bit. Hard rubbing would smudge them but that's all. They laughed at quick detail cleaners. Wax, liquid or paste, didn't move them, and it didn't make them shiny, either. Reapplication of the straight Mister Clean soap didn't help (didn't hurt, either. It just didn't . . . whatever), and neither did properly-used Mother's. It was sad.

 

So I tried a strong ammonia solution as washwater with a rag. Grudgingly, the stuff wiped off, but not without effort. Of course, the wax came off too, but then, we all just effing love to reapply a coat of wax that was just put on for the springtime riding season, don't we?

 

So anyway, take that as a cautionary note, and if anyone out there is some sort of soap chemist, what do you suppose brought that about?

 

Pilgrim

[Tony_K]

The Mother's product has a wax preservative (for lack of a better word) in it. So when you wash a waxed car your not stripping what is already there.

 

The other soap was your standard wax stripping kind?

 

Mix it together and you have a battle of ultimate proportion!

The result is globbing of that battle of wax preservitive and stripper...

 

FOUND MORE INFO!!!

 

Ok this is the problem and THIS is why you never mix brands...

 

from Mr. Clean

The Dry Rinse Polymer sheets water off your car for fast drying, leaving no film or residue.

 

Their polymer is fighting with the Mother's wax preserivative!

Stick with one brand at a time especially with the new fangled stuff.

 

[RonStewart]

So now it is cut wax time?

 

In our youth, a friend spread Turtle Wax all over his car on a sunny day, but did not buff it. It hardened like that. His car looked awful from then on (it was a beater to start with) but man, you should have seen the water bead, even a few years later.

[Pilgrim]

Thanks, Tony. That sounds mostly right, but the Mister Clean is not, I don't think, a wax stripper. At least I've never seen any sign of it.

 

But ammonia sure is!

 

Pilgrim

 

The Mother's product has a wax preservative (for lack of a better word) in it. So when you wash a waxed car your not stripping what is already there.

 

The other soap was your standard wax stripping kind?

 

Mix it together and you have a battle of ultimate proportion!

The result is globbing of that battle of wax preservitive and stripper...

 

FOUND MORE INFO!!!

 

Ok this is the problem and THIS is why you never mix brands...

 

from Mr. Clean

The Dry Rinse Polymer sheets water off your car for fast drying, leaving no film or residue.

 

Their polymer is fighting with the Mother's wax preserivative!

Stick with one brand at a time especially with the new fangled stuff.

[GelStra]

My vote for best subject title of '08 thus far!

[notacop]

Some of us learned early to wash the bike by riding in the rain. You have my condolences on your disaster. I hope all your harsh chemicals don't end up with a new paint job.

When I do break down and wash the bike I use a car glove and auto soap in a bucket and lotso rinse water quickly.

Followed by the requisite Maguaires routine.

On the olden bikes when I could see the engine I used Gunk concentrate on the silvery stuff and mild soap on the painted and chrome.

[Pilgrim]

Well, here I am, four hours of cleaning later, and things are recovered with no apparent damage. As I said, an ammonia wash solution and ample rubbing takes the goop off - eventually, and after removing every piece of the bike that it was reasonable to do so I could reach otherwise-hidden places. Then the whole thing got a new coat of wax and all is well.

 

If it had been my old R1100RT I'da probably left it, but it was, after all, my Harley.

 

It was what they call a valuable learning experience.

 

Pilgrim