Washing Your Car With Kerosene

[Munkyb0y]

A friend of mine told me about this. He said a detailer told him it gives the car an amazing shine, beads water, does no harm, and is easy to apply.

I think the basic idea is to add kerosene to a bucket of warm water and was the car with it. OR give a washed car a wipe over with a rag wet with kerosene.

I googled it and found much debate about this subject.

So has anyone here used kerosene to wash/shine a car?

[Luke_GTS-T]

sounds like a dumb idea to me.. why not just use wax/polish like a normal person?

[Munkyb0y]

sounds kinda dumb to me too. but i wonder if anyone has tried it, and what they have to say about it.

[Jonno34]

Sounds like a pretty nasty Idea to me mate, never heard of it being done before and definitely wouldnt wanna try it.

If you want a quick shine try something like a spray wax or spray detailer

[xALmoN]

gonna burn off your clear bro..

[PM-R33]

Glad this has been brought up.

Yep people do it. It is a very old fashioned way of doing things though.

There is a product that you can buy in the shops called Nu Finish - bright orange bottle. There used to be ads in Australia for it long ago with a car in the desert under the sun with the Nu Finish polish on it. They call it the "once a year car polish".

It is very popular and I used to get asked for it by a lot of old people while working in the retail industry. I however was not a fan of it at all and used to always tell people "You know the majority of that product is kerosene right?". They would start going "IT IS NOT! It's a fantastic product, i've been using it for the last 20 years!". Then I would go "smell the product...".

Long story short yes kerosene works. It takes off all the contaminents from the paint. Just as wax and grease remover would. It is not used as a wax, but as a polish. I however don't trust it on clear coats. Fair enough on older cars without clear coats it may have worked fine. But on a modern clear coat there is no way in hell that I would be using kerosene.

[Munkyb0y]

and there you have it. of course i realise it sounds crazy. and no, i dont want to apply it to my car. but after looking into it, there are people that swear by it.

apparently kerosene is contained in a lot of car cleaning products. in fact sometimes more volatile ingredients than kerosene.

[Munkyb0y]

oops double post

Edited May 18, 2011 by Munkyb0y

[VNS 24]

I only trust and use Meguiar's products, until someone can convinces me there's actually something better than it.

[PM-R33]

There are plenty that are better, however for most people it is as good as they need.

My collection basically consists of a mixture of Mothers, Meguiars and Autoglym products since I can pick them up locally and don't have to order online.

[Jonno34]

Basically with detailing any "quick and easy" products sacrifice something, which is either the quality of the shine and protection it brings up at the end, or the safety of the product in which case its most likely inducing a ton of swirl marks or damaging your paint in some way or the other ...

If you want some suggestions on easy products to use that still do a good job and keep stuff safe PM me or something mate, I work at a detailer and I've got a decent idea on how to go about doing stuff

[GTR-N1]

It strips away the canauba and sealant.

However it's good for removing insect residue from the front spoiler etc in summer months of country driving. Just follow up with wash, sealant and wax once more.

One of the ingredients in tar 'n bug remover.

[Jonno34]

VNS24 i used to love meg's too, but have a go at some Final Inspection products ... amazing stuff

[vesh]

VNS24 i used to love meg's too, but have a go at some Final Inspection products ... amazing stuff

I am with you here mate, I only use Final Inspection products now

[Jonno34]

yeah i'm rapidly using up the meg's on the other cars so I can replace them with FI Goodies =D

[Hanaldo]

I only trust and use Meguiar's products, until someone can convinces me there's actually something better than it.

See I hate Meguiars. Refuse to let it anywhere near my car. Anything that contains silicon can geeet owt.

Glad Final Inspection products were mentioned, I'm a big fan of their range.

[Jonno34]

Final Inspection!

Glad so many people are using top quality products to take care of their paint .. im probably a bit on the anal side myself in terms of detailing

[Hanaldo]

Final Inspection!

Glad so many people are using top quality products to take care of their paint .. im probably a bit on the anal side myself in terms of detailing

Possibly... Possibly could have worded that better

I take huge care in what I put on my paint, given I respray my own panels so I refuse to use anything that is going to mess with the finish, ie. silicon.

[Jonno34]

Ahh perhaps that would have been a more sophisticated manner

[Dani Boi]

Looks like I will be switching to Final Inspection after my other products run out